EXCHANGE 


UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN 
HISTORICAL   STUDIES 

PUBLISHED  UNDER  THE   DIRECTION  OF  THE 
DEPARTMENT   OF   HISTORY 


THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 


THE 

COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 


A  HISTORY  OF  RACK  PREJUDICE  IN  A  TYPICAL 
NORTHERN  STATE. 


BY 
FRANK  U.  QUIUJN,  PH.D. 

PROFESSOR    OF  SOCIOLOGY    AND    ECONOMICS 
KNOX   COLLEGE. 


A  Thesis  submitted  to  the  Faculty  of  the  Department  of  Lit 
erature,  Science,  and  the  Arts,  of  the  University  of  Michigan  in 
partial  fulfillment  of  the  requirements  for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy. 


ANN   ARBOR,   MICHIGAN 
GEORGE   WAHR 

1913 


COPYRIGHT,  1913 

BY 
FRANK  U. 


THE  ANN  ARBOR    PRE8& 
PRINTERS 


TO 

GEORGE    D.    SELBY 

WHO  HOWEVER  PROSPEROUS   CAN  NEVER 

BE  LARGER  OF    PURSE   THAN  OF 

HEART,     THIS    WORK     IS 

AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED 


PREFACE. 

Eight  years  ago  while  a  student  doing  post-grad 
uate  work  in  Harvard  University,  I  received  from 
Professor  Albert  Bushnell  Hart  the  inspiration  to  in 
vestigate  the  feeling  of  the  people  of  the  North  to 
ward  the  negroes  living  amongst  them.  I  wrote  out 
at  first  a  brief  story  of  the  treatment  of  the  negroes 
in  my  home  town  in  Ohio.  At  the  suggestion  of  Pro 
fessor  Hart  this  article  was  submitted  to  The  Inde 
pendent  and  published.  Soon  it  was  copied  in  scores 
of  newspapers  throughout  the  country,  giving  evi 
dence  that  the  treatment  of  the  negroes  was  of  great 
interest  to  the  American  people. 

From  the  publication  of  the  above  article  until 
the  present  time  I  have  been  a  student  of  this  partic 
ular  phase  of  the  negro  question.  For  five  years  I 
have  been  carrying  on  my  investigations  under  the 
supervision  of  Professor  Claude  H.  Van  Tyne,  of  the 
department  of  History  in  the  University  of  Michigan. 
For  the  history  of  the  feeling  against  the  negro  I  have 
had  recourse  to  many  good  libraries,  the  best  of  which 

I  found  to  be  the  Ohio  State  Library  at  Columbus, 
Ohio,  in  which  I  spent  many  profitable  weeks.     For 
the  knowledge  of  present  day  conditions  I  have  de 
pended  upon  an  original  or  "first-hand"  investigation, 
travelling  about  for  months  and  interviewing  many 
hundreds  of  white  and  colored  men. 

The  book  is  divided  into  two  parts,  Part  I  giving 
the  history  of  the  feeling  toward  the  negro,  and  Part 

II  showing  present  day  conditions.    Either  part  may 
be  read  first.     The  casual  reader  will  probably  find 
more  interest  in  the  book  if  he  reads  Part  II  first. 

In  these  pages  there  will  be  found,  I  hope,  no  de 
fense  of  race  prejudice  or  sentimental  regard  for  the 
negroes.  The  book  will  portray  conditions  only,  and 
for  this  reason  will  appeal  for  its  readers  to  a  wuder 


x  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

public.  The  author  of  this  book  is  descended  on  his 
mother's  side  from  the  Pennsylvania  Dutch  and  on 
his  father's  side  from  Virginia  English.  He  was  born 
and  brought  up  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Ohio  River, 
while  many  of  his  relatives  lived  just  across  the  river 
in  "Dixie  Land,"  where  he  often  visited-  He  is  a  native 
of  the  great  State  of  Ohio  which  led  in  the  anti-slavery 
crusade,  but  which  now  in  its  treatment  of  the  liber 
ated  blacks  is  like  so  many  of  the  other  Northern 
States — in  a  way  to  be  developed  in  the  following 
pages. 

For  these  and  other  reasons  the  author  hopes  to 
be  able  to  narrate  facts  about  the  treatment  of  the  ne 
gro  in  the  North  without  a  partisan  temper  or  a  biased 
mind. 

I  am  indebted  to  hundreds  of  people  in  various 
parts  of  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois  and  Mich 
igan,  for  the  information  in  this  book.  But  I  desire 
to  express  my  special  obligations  to  Professor  A.  B. 
Hart  of  Harvard  University  for  getting  me  started  on 
the  work,  to  Professor  U.  B.  Phillips,  of  the  Universi 
ty  of  Michigan,  for  reading  the  proof  and  making 
many  valuable  suggestions,  to  Mr.  C.  B.  Galbreath,  of 
the  Ohio  State  Library  for  most  courteous  treatment 
during  the  time  spent  with  him  in  the  summer  of  1909, 
to  my  wife  for  the  many  hours  spent  in  tedious  work 
upon  the  maps,  and  for  many  most  valuable  sugges 
tions,  and  to  The  Independent,  of  New  York  City,  for 
the  privilege  of  incorporating  in  this  book  several  ar 
ticles  written  by  the  author  and  published  in  that  ex 
cellent  magazine  during  the  last  few  years.  To  Pro 
fessor  Claude  H.  Van  Tyne,  of  the  University  of  Mich 
igan,  who  has  for  five  years  encouraged  me  at  every 
step  of  the  way  but  who  has  not  been  content  with 
anything  but  what  he  considered  thorough,  I  acknowl 
edge  my  deepest  obligations. 

FRANK  U.  QUILLIN. 
Galesburg,  Illinois,  September,  1912. 


CONTENTS. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Purpose  and  method  of  the  inquiry— Comparison 
of  views  with  those  of  Alfred  H.  Stone  in  his  recent 
Studies  in  the  American  Race  Problem— Nation-wide 
features  of  the  problem  of  racial  adjustments— Ohio 
a  typical  Northern  State. 

PART  I. 

THE    HISTORICAL   DEVELOPMENT. 

CHAPTER  I. 

FEELING  TOWARD  THE  NEGRO  SHOWN  IN  THE  CONSTITU 
TIONAL  CONVENTION,,  1802.. 

The  first  Ohio  Constitutional  Convention — Mo 
tions  regarding  the  status  of  free  negroes — Votes  for 
and  against  negro  rights — The  question  of  introducing 
slavery — Slavery  prohibited — Little  evidence  of  sec 
tional  vote — Race  prejudice  evident. 

CHAPTER  II 

LEGAL  STATUS  OF  NEGRO,  1802 — 1849. 

Status  of  negro  in  the  State  constitution — First 
Black  Laws  passed — Law  of  1807;  negroes  forbid 
den  to  enter  State,  etc. — Debarred  from  serving  in 
militia — Forbidden  to  sit  on  juries — Shut  out  from 
school  privileges — Summary  of  Black  Laws — Supreme 
Court  decisions  affecting  negroes — Why  the  Black 
Laws  were  passed — The  number  of  negroes  entering 
Ohio — Report  of  legislative  committee  on  the  negro 
question,  1832 — Enforcement  of  the  Black  Laws — 
Great  expulsion  of  negroes  from  Cincinnati,  1829 — 
Conclusion. 


xii  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

CHAPTER  III. 

REPEAL  OF  THE  BLACK  LAWS,  1849. 

The  negro  question  in  Ohio  before  1830 — Anti- 
slavery's  defense  of  free  negroes — Petitions  to  Legis 
lature  for  repeal  of  Black  Laws — Eepeal  accom 
plished,  1849 — Reasons  for  the  repeal — W.  H.  SCAV- 
ard's  speech  in  Cleveland,  1848— Attitude  of  the  Free- 
Soil  party— Make-up  of  the  State  Legislature— Bal 
ance  of  power  held  by  two  men — The  "deal"  made  by 
these  men  and  the  Democratic  party — The  repeal  not 
in  accord  with  the  popular  will — Summary. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

SOCIAL  POSITION  OF  NEGRO,  1802 — 1849. 

Negroes  generally  regarded  "as  an  excrescence  on 
the  body  politic" — William  Jay's  discussion  of  free 
negro  status  in  the  United  States— Attitude  of  the 
people  of  Ohio  toward  schooling  for  negroes — School 
troubles  in  Cincinnati — Oberlin  College  and  its  atti 
tude  on  the  question — Opposition  to  "nigger  schools" 
throughout  the  State — Negroes  denied  religious  priv 
ileges — No  protest  by  colored  people — Committee 
report  on  condition  of  negroes  in  Cincinnati  in  1834 — 
Negroes  denied  the  right  of  petitioning  the  Legisla 
ture — Slaves  actually  held  in  Ohio — White  men's 
views  of  racial  discriminations — Report  of  legislative 
committee,  1827 — Editorial  opinion — Report  of  leg 
islative  committee,  1832 — The  expression  of  a  justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State — Summary. 

CHAPTER  V. 

FEELING  TOWARD  THE  NEGRO  AS  EXPRESSED  IN  THE  CON 
STITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,,  1850 — 1851. 

The  growth  of  race  prejudice — Proceedings  of  the 
Convention  as  expressing  public  opinion  toward  the 
negro — Petitions,  number  and  kinds — Petitions  on 


CONTENTS  xiii 

behalf  of  the  negroes  bitterly  assailed — A  typical 
petition — Division  of  Ohio  into  a  "North"  and  a 
"South" — Comparison  of  negro  types  and  numbers  in 
the  two  sections — Consequences — Votes  in  the  con 
vention  upon  motions  regarding  negroes — (1)  To  en 
roll  them  in  the  State  militia— (2)  To  give  them  the 
suffrage — (3)  To  throw  open  public  schools  to  white 
and  black  children  on  equal  terms- 

CHAPTER  VI. 

LEGAL  STATUS,  1850 — 1912. 

Legal  Status  of  negro  in  1850 — New  school  law  of 
1853 — Supreme  Court  decisions  upon  this — Chief  Jus 
tice  Peck  on  the  situation  as  regards  the  negro — Suit 
of  colored  boy  for  remedy,  1876 — A  similar  suit  in  a 
Federal  Court,  1881 — New  enactment  throwing  Pub 
lic  schools  open  to  whites  and  blacks,  1887 — Reception 
of  this  law  in  the  State — Colored  schools  retained  by 
many  towns  in  spite  of  the  law — The  struggle  for  ne 
gro  suffrage — Attitude  of  the  Legislature  in  1859 — 
Attitude  of  the  Democratic  party,  1865 — The  popular 
vote,  1867,  upon  granting  negro  suffrage — Action  upon 
the  proposed  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  Federal 
Constitution — The  effect  of  the  amendment  in  Ohio — 
Act  of  1884  securing  equal  rights  to  the  negro. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

SOCIAL  STATUS,  1850 — 1912. 

"Equal  rights"  on  the  statute  books  and  "equal 
rights"  in  actual  life — A  judge  refuses  a  colored 
preacher  a  license  to  perform  marriages — A  colored 
woman  ejected  from  street  car  in  Cincinnati,  1859, 
solely  on  account  of  color — Wilberfore  College  burned 
to  the  ground  by  negro  haters — Convention  of  colored 
people  of  Ohio,  1873,  and  their  resolutions — Colored 
man  put  up  for  office  to  appease  his  race — A  colored 


xiv  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

boy  tries  to  join  a  company  of  cadets  in  a  Columbus 
school — Colored  man  refused  admittance  to  certain 
section  of  theatre  in  Columbus — He  assaults  the  door 
keeper — City  Council  refuses  to  prohibit  discrimina 
tions — A  picture  of  race-prejudice  in  one  of  the  small 
er  towns  of  the  State — Negro  lynchings  in  Ohio — In 
Adams  County,  1856,  1894, — In  Crawford  County, 
1882, — At  Washington  Court  House,  Fayette  County, 
1894,— In  Clermont  County,  1895,— At  Urbana, 
Champaign  County,  1897, — The  Akron  race  riot,  1900 
—The  Springfield  race  riots  and  lynchings — The  re 
fusal  of  the  white  people  to  give  "equal  rights"  to  ne 
groes — Attempts  of  colored  people  to  collect  damages 
as  provided  for  in  the  equal  rights  act  of  1884 — De 
feated  by  the  State  Supreme  Court — Conclusion. 


PART  II. 

PRESENT  DAY  CONDITIONS. 
CHAPTER  I— CINCINNATI 

Purpose  and  method  of  this  inquiry — The  equal- 
rights  law  a  dead  letter  in  Cincinnati — Physicians — 
The  fire  department — Parks,  hotels  and  restaurants — 
Pullman  cars— The  Y.  M.  C.  A.— Theatres— The  real- 
estate  market — Labor  unions — The  industrial  status 
of  negroes,  and  the  reasons  therefor. 

CHAPTER  II— DAYTON. 

Exclusion  of  the  negroes  from  the  better  class  of 
stores,  soda  fountains  and  saloons — Theatres — Real- 
estate — Employments — Explanation  of  the  regime 
contributed  by  white  and  negro  citizens. 


CONTENTS  xv 

CHAPTER  III— SPRINGFIELD. 

The  labor  unions — The  race  riots  of  1904  and  1906 
— The  present  bitter  hostility  toward  negroes. 

CHAPTER  IV— COLUMBUS. 

Change  in  feeling  toward  negroes — Bad  effect  of 
recent  negro  immigration  from  the  South — A  strained 
situation — Racial  discriminations — Divisions  among 
the  negroes — The  views  of  upper-class  negroes. 

CHAPTER  V— CLEVELAND. 

Remarkable  absence  of  racial  antipathy  and  dis 
criminations — Negroes  in  the  trades  and  professions 
— Social  segregation — Causes  of  the  Cleveland  condi 
tions. 

CHAPTER  VI— SYRACUSE,  A  NEGRO-HATING 
SMALL  TOWN. 

Negroes  prohibited  from  spending  a  night  in  Syr 
acuse — The  town's  reputation — A  negro  family  on  the 
outskirts — A  son  and  daughter  in  school — The  exclu 
sion  of  a  would-be  negro  resident — Ohio  town  condi 
tions  in  general — Feeling  in  the  state  as  a  whole. 


xvi  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

MAPS. 

PAGE 

No.  1 — Negro  Population  of  Ohio,  1800 18 

No.  2 — Votes    in    Constitutional    Convention    of 

1802  on  Status  of  Negroes 19 

No.  3— Negro  Population  of  Ohio,  1830 27 

No.  4 — Negro  Population  of  Ohio,  1850 74 

No.  5 — Votes    in    Constitutional    Convention    of 

1850-'51  on  Status  of  Negroes 75 

No.  6— Votes  by  Counties  in  1867  on  Giving  Suf 
frage  to  Negroes 100 

No.  7— Negro  Population  of  Ohio,  1870 101 

No.  8— Negro  Population  of  Ohio,  1900 121 


INTRODUCTION. 

This  book  was  written  as  the  fruit  of  an  investiga 
tion  of  race  relations  in  the  history  of  Ohio.  It  con 
tains  generalizations  which  I  consider  important  and 
which  at  the  time  I  reached  them  I  thought  were  orig 
inal  contributions  as  well  as  independent  conclusions. 
They  had  been  forced  upon  me  by  the  weight  of  the 
facts  revealed  by  my  own  investigations  in  Ohio,  and 
were  not  obtained  from  the  works  of  other  writers.  One 
of  the  readers  of  my  manuscript,  a  Southern  gentle 
man,  who  had  made  an  extensive  study  of  the  race 
question  kindly  pointed  out  that  many  of  my  conclu 
sions  were  familiar  to  the  special  students  of  the  ne 
gro  problem.  I  then  looked  more  deeply  into  the  lit 
erature  bearing  upon  the  larger  phases  of  race  rela 
tions.  Among  other  works,  I  read  a  book  written  by 
a  Southerner  living  in  the  "black  belt,"  a  book  enti 
tled  Studies  in  the  American  Race  Problem  by  Alfred 
Holt  Stone,  which  not  only  contains  my  "important 
conclusions"  but  which  emphasizes  them  as  his 
important  conclusions;  he  a  planter  in  the  far 
Southern  State  of  Mississippi  and  I  a  school-master 
in  the  most  northern  State  of  the  Northwest  Territory ; 
he,  after  fifteen  years'  study  of  the  relation  of  the 
white  and  colored  races  throughout  America,  and  I 
after  studying  for  several  years  the  feeling  betAveen 
the  races  in  one  of  the  largest  of  the  Northern  States, 
come  to  these  conclusions:  1.  That  the  prejudice  of 
the  white  man  against  the  negro  increases  according 
to  the  growth  of  the  negro  population;  2.  That  the 
average  negro  is  worse  off  in  the  North  than  in  the 
South  because  he  is  here  so  completely  shut  out  from 
the  more  advantageous  industrial  opportunities;  3. 
That  social  equality  between  the  races  in  the  North 
as  well  as  in  the  South  is  a  myth;  4.  That  civil  rights 
for  whites  and  negroes  in  the  North  are  the  same  tech- 


2  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

nically,  but  that  actual  discriminations  are  just  as 
numerous  as  in  any  Southern  State ;  5.  That  there  is 
much  more  prejudice  against  the  negro  race  today 
than  there  was  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War ;  6.  That 
it  is  essential  to  the  Northern  man,  if  he  would  really 
know  the  truth  of  his  own  section,  to  get  it  from  the 
lips  and  hearts  of  the  colored  people  themselves. 

Although  I  have  been  disillusioned  as  to  some  of 
my  conclusions  being  discoveries  I  am  more  than  satis 
fied  for  the  sake  of  truth  and  harmony  to  find  that 
the  same  conclusions  have  been  arrived  at  by  another, 
and  he  a  Southerner.  The  conclusions  arrived  at  by 
such  independent  investigations  must  necessarrily 
have  greater  significance  for  those  who  desire  a  mutu 
al  understanding  between  the  North  and  the  South  on 
this  important  race  question.  As  Mr.  Stone  says, 
"There  would  be  precious  little  room  for  misunder 
standing  between  us  here,  if  each  of  us  were  only  more 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  his  own  and  the  other's 
ground."1  "We  would  do  well  to  sweep  our  own  door 
steps  before  calling  attention  to  the  condition  of  our 
neighbor's.  It  is  a  fundamental  principle  of  every  pro 
ceeding  in  equity  that  the  complainant  come  into  court 
with  clean  hands."2 

Before  proceeding  with  the  discussion  of  prej 
udice  in  the  abstract  let  us  Northerners  "sweep  our 
own  doorsteps,"  let  us  "come  into  court  with  clean 
hands."  A  picture  drawn  by  another  Southern  writer 
to  show  racial  discriminations  in  the  South  requires 
but  slight  retouching  to  portray  conditions  in  Ohio. 
Here  the  public  places  of  honor  and  profit,  which  are 
open  to  every  white  man,  have  been  and  are  closed  to 
the  black  man  as  by  iron  doors.  In  the  learned  pro 
fessions,  in  the  direction  of  corporate  enterprises  and 
important  industrial  agencies,  in  the  higher  industrial 
and  mechanical  occupations,  even  in  the  factories  and 


1  Stone,  American  Race  Problem,  23. 

2  Stone,  American  Race  Problem,  34. 


INTRODUCTION  3 

workshops,  where  some  small  degree  of  skill  and  in 
telligence  is  required  of  the  operatives,  he  has  had  and 
now  has  no  standing  or  place  whatever  among  white 
men.  As  a  professor,  teacher,  merchant,  lawyer,  phy 
sician,  journalist,  he  receives  some  little  countenance 
and  patronage  from  his  own  race,  and  he  looks  for  no 
other ;  porter,  drayman,  hod-carrier,  coachman,  butler, 
barber,  cook  or  waiter,  he  may  be  at  pleasure,  and  find 
service;  but  when  in  touch  with  the  whites  it  is  ever 
the  service  of  the  inferior  to  the  superior  that  is  exact 
ed  from  him. 

The  negro  is  admitted  to  some  hotels  and  other 
public  resorts ;  but  his  place  is  on  his  feet  while  there, 
or  is  fixed  apart  by  some  special  provision  in  his  be 
half.  He  cannot  sit  at  the  table,  public  or  private, 
with  a  white  man.  If  he  attends  the  white  man's 
church  (which  he  seldom  does),  he  is  assigned  a  place 
where  he  will  have  much  more  space  than  he  really 
needs  for  comfort.  He  has  no  seat  in  the  congrega 
tion  and  none  at  the  communion  table.  He  is  excluded 
without  ceremony  from  the  councils  of  the  laity.  He 
is  sexton  and  organ-blower  and  bell-ringer.  His  posi 
tion  in  the  household  of  faith  is  the  same  as  in  the 
household  of  fashion, — that  of  a  door-keeper  and  ser 
vitor.  In  the  theater  and  the  circus,  the  camp-meet 
ing  and  the  court-room,  the  hospital  and  the  prison, 
the  cemetery  and  the  potter's  field,  his  place  is  his 
alone,  and  is  readily  located.  Wherever  he  goes  or 
stays,  works  or  worships,  plays  or  suffers,  lives  or  dies, 
the  lines  are  drawn  sharply  around  and  about  him, 
and  there  is  no  transgressing  them — from  his  side. 

The  two  races  have  been  and  are  utterly  separat 
ed.  As  the  Cincinnati  (Ohio)  Commercial  Gazette  of 
June  15, 1889,  said :  "The  color-line  is  everywhere.  It 
is  in  every  church.  It  is  in  society.  It  is  in  politics. 
And  there  is  no  class  that  knows  this  better  than  the 
colored  people There  may  be  a  sentiment  in  fa 
vor  of  wiping  out  the  color-line,  but  it  is  not  honest." 


4  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

Exceptions  there  are  to  all  the  above  restrictions 
on  the  negroes,  but  we  are  concerned  not  with  excep 
tions  but  with  general  conditions, — with  the  views  of 
the  white  people  in  general  toward  the  negroes  dwell 
ing  in  their  midst,  and  with  the  adjustments  result 
ing. 

Some  readers  will  say  that  this  picture  is  over 
drawn,  others  will  say  that  it  is  wholly  untrue.  I  was 
born  and  reared  in  Ohio.  I  love  her  as  I  love  no  other 
State,  and  I  have  no  reason  whatever  for  misrepre 
senting  her.  I  shall  give  the  facts  as  I  found  them. 

Ohio  is  not  alone  among  the  Northern  States  in 
her  discriminations  against  the  negro  race.  "There  is 
not  a  State  in  the  Union,  from  Massachusetts  to  Cal 
ifornia,  which  through  some  element  of  its  population, 
does  not  today,  somewhere  within  its  borders,  in  some 
way  discriminate  against  the  negro  race.  The  laws 
and  customs  of  every  State,  from  the  beginning  until 
this  hour,  have  been  influenced  by  the  factor  of  the 
relative  numerical  strength  of  the  negro."3  As  Mr. 
Stone  goes  on  to  say,  wherever  the  negro  population 
increases  in  numbers  there  you  may  find  the  discrimi 
nations  also  increasing.  Ohio  is  but  typical  of  all  the 
Northern  States  and  for  this  reason  I  entitle  this  book 
The  Color  Line  In  Ohio,  a  History  of  Race  Prejudice 
in  a  Typical  Northern  State. 

aOn  the  evening  of  December  17,  1855,  there  as 
sembled  a  gathering  of  the  colored  citizens  of  the  city 
of  Boston  to  do  honor  to  a  member  of  their  race.  The 
man  was  William  0.  Nell.  The  occasion  was  the  pre 
sentation  to  him  of  a  testimonial  of  appreciation  of 
his  labors  in  behalf  of  the  removal  of  the  color  line 
from  the  public  schools  of  Boston.  The  event  com 
memorated  the  crowning  achievement  of  a  purpose 
formed  and  work  begun  some  twenty-six  years  before. 
It  marked  the  close  of  a  quarter  century  of  patient  and 
unremitting  struggle  with  established  law  and  cus 
tom.  The  meeting  was  made  memorable  by  the  pres- 

8  Stone,  American  Race  Problem,  13. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

ence  of  such  men  as  Wendell  Phillips  and  William 
Lloyd  Garrison,  who  rejoiced  with  their  colored  breth 
ren  that  "the  prejudice  against  color  was  dying  out." 
This  was  the  keynote  of  all  the  addresses  made — the 
faith  that  the  final  surrender  of  this  long-stormed  cit 
adel  marked  the  passing  of  the  prejudice  of  race. 

"Fifty- two  years  later,  in  November,  1907,  a  great 
concourse  of  Boston's  colored  citizens  assembled  in 
Faneuil  Hall  to  protest  against  the  steady  and  wide 
increase  of  race  prejudice  in  America.  The  meeting 
was  addressed  by  the  gray-haired  son  of  the  great  abo 
litionist,  in  tones  which  were  far  from  sounding  an 
echo  of  the  hopeful,  long  forgotten  words  of  his  fath 
er."* 

It  was  not  in  the  South  that  one  of  the  most  sen 
sitive  and  most  cultured  men  identified  with  the  negro 
race,  W.  E.  DuBois,  was  first  made  to  realize  that  he 
"was  different  from  the  others."  It  was  away  up  in  the 
hills  of  New  England  where  he  was  made  to  feel  the 
presence  of  "the  shadow  of  the  veil,"5  when  a  white 
girl  schoolmate  refused  his  card  with  a  significant 
glance. 

In  1842  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts  we  find  ne 
groes  excluded  altogther  from  the  cars  on  the  New 
Bedford  Traction  Eailroad.6  In  1905  in  the  same 
State  we  find  a  clause  in  the  warrant  for  the  "town 
meeting"  of  Marion,  providing  for  a  vote  on  the  ques 
tion  of  employing  only  white  men  on  town  work.7  In 
a  town  of  northern  Indiana  in  1907  the  proprietor  of 
the  leading  hotel  permitted  a  negro  to  sit  down  at  the 
table  with  white  customers,  and  as  a  result  the  travel 
ling  men  and  others  boycotted  the  hotel  and  it  was 
forced  to  close.  In  a  contribution  to  a  leading  negro 
magazine  a  Southern  negro  in  relating  his  experiences 

.  *  Stone,  American  Race  Problem,  211-212. 
BDuBois,  The  Souls  of  Black  Folk,  2. 

8  Samuel  J.  May,  Some  Recollections  of  our  Anti-Slavery  Con 
flict,  399.    Quoted  by  Stone,  American  Race  Problem,  67. 
7  Stone,  American  Race  Problem,  7. 


6  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

in  a  Northern  university  says  that  he  found  "not  an 
ounce  more  of  opposition"  from  Southern  than  from 
Northern  students,  but  describes  the  former  as  more 
"frank"  and  the  latter  more  "secretive"  in  their  social 
atitudes.8  In  virtually  all  the  States  of  the  North 
there  are  cities  which  provide  for  the  separate  educa 
tion  of  the  black  and  white  children.  President  Emer 
itus  Eliot,  of  Harvard,  says,  "In  Northern  towns, 
where  negro  children  are  proportionally  numerous 
there  is  just  the  same  tendency  and  desire  to  separate 
them  from  the  whites  as  there  is  in  the  South.  This 
separation  may  be  effected  by  public  regulations,  but, 
if  not,  it  will  be  effected  by  white  parents  procuring 
the  transfer  of  their  children  to  schools  where  negroes 
are  few."9 

Many  things  might  be  mentioned  here  to  show  the 
truth  of  Mr.  Stone's  statements  when  he  says,  "A  con 
tention  that  the  negro  is  treated  as  an  equal  in  the 
North  is  not  often  made  by  sensible  men,  and  it  can 
not  be  supported  by  facts.  It  is  idle  to  point  to  a  mu 
latto  upon  whom  Harvard  has  conferred  a  degree,  or 
to  one  whom  a  G.A.K.  post  has  elected  its  commander, 
and  say  to  the  world :  'Here  we  tolerate  no  racial  dis 
criminations.'  The  negro  knows  better,  whether  he 
considers  the  discrimination  in  either  its  social,  polit 
ical  or  economic  aspect."10 

Having  taken  this  hasty  view  of  the  social  posi 
tion  of  the  negro  in  the  North  let  us  now  turn  to  the 
industrial  phase  of  his  life  in  this  section,  and  compare 
it  with  his  treatment  in  the  South.  It  has  often  been 
stated  by  people  in  the  North  that  the  negro  is  not 
given  a  fair  industrial  opportunity  in  the  South.  The 
negroes  themselves  are  almost  unanimous  in  saying 
that  lack  of  industrial  opportunity  is  found  in  the 

8  William  Pickens,  The  Voice  of  the  Negro,  April,  1905,  pp.  235, 
236.    Quoted  by  Stone  in  American  Race  Problem,  23. 

9  The  Work  and  Influence  of  Hampton,  1904,  p.  9.    Quoted  by 
Stone,  American  Race  Problem,  68. 

10  Stone,  American  Race  Problem,  23. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

North  more  than  in  the  South  because  the  Northern* 
ers,  especially  trades-union  people,  will  not  think 
of  working  with  them.  As  the  negroes  are  the  ones 
that  bear  the  burdens  of  this  prejudice  it  would 
seem  that  they  ought  to  know  whereof  they  speak. 
Booker  T.  Washington,  in  a  plea  for  industrial  educa 
tion  and  opportunity,  says :  "No  one  can  fully  appreci 
ate  what  I  am  saying  who  has  not  walked  the  streets 
of  a  Northern  city  day  after  day  seeking  employment, 
only  to  find  every  door  closed  against  him  on  account 
of  his  color,  except  in  menial  service.'711  On  the  other 
hand,  he  says :  "Whatever  other  sins  the  South  may  be 
called  upon  to  bear,  when  it  comes  to  business,  pure 
and  simple,  it  is  in  the  South  that  the  negro  is  given 
a  man's  chance  in  the  commercial  world."12 

The  Bulletin  of  the  Inter-Municipal  Committee  on 
Household  Eesearch  is  authority  for  the  statement 
that  the  Boston  Eeform  League  has  been  unable  to  se 
cure  an  equal  chance  for  colored  girls  in  obtaining  em 
ployment,  and  cannot  secure  places  for  more  than 
half  who  apply.  "Negroes  who  specialize  in  house 
work  duplicate  the  experience  of  a  colored  butler  for 
whom  the  league  tried  for  three  months  to  find  a  place, 
but  without  success.  He  was  neat  in  his  person  and 
good  looking,  and  was  highly  recommended.  He  stat 
ed  that  he  had  answered,  in  all,  two  hundred  adver 
tisements,  but  he  was  invariably  refused  the  position 
simply  because  he  was  a  colored  man.  It  is  not  sur 
prising,  therefore,  that  on  leaving  Boston  to  return  to 
New  York,  he  said:  "These  Boston  people  beat  me. 
They  will  have  mass-meetings  and  raise  money  to  help 
Mr.  Washington  educate  the  'niggers'  down  South, 
but  they  will  let  a  decent  Northerner  starve  before 
they  will  give  him  a  chance  to  earn  an  honest  living."13 

11  Washington,  Future  of  the  American  Negro,  76. 

12  Washington,  Up  From  Slavery,  219-220. 

13  Bulletin,  New  York  City,  May  1905,  p.  15.    Quoted  by  Stone, 
American  Race  Problem,  161. 


8  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

Dr.  William  N.  D.  Berry,  for  many  years  pastor 
of  a  Colored  Congregational  Church  in  Springfield, 
Mass.,  says  that  86  per  cent  of  the  colored  labor  in  his 
city  on  January  1,  1905,  was  confined  to  the  lower 
strata  of  industry,  because  the  large  number  fitted  for 
other  occupations  were  "debarred  by  pure  race  preju 
dice,"  which  has  closed  the  door  of  industrial  oppor 
tunity  against  these  men  as  a  class,"  they  suffering  "a 
merciless  industrial  ostracism  which  shuts  out  the 
capapble  and  worthy  negro  because  God  chose  to  cre 
ate  him  black."  And  Dr.  Berry  says  that  his  study  of 
conditions  in  Springfield  should  be  "of  more  than  local 
significance,  inasmuch  as  the  situation  here  in  Spring 
field  is  fairly  typical  of  the  black  man's  condition 
throughout  the  North."14 

Dr.  Du  Bois  in  The  Philadelphia  Negro  says,  "It 
is  a  paradox  of  the  times  that  young  men  and  women 
from  some  of  the  best  negro  families  of  the  city .  .  have 
actually  had  to  go  to  the  South  to  get  work,  if  they 
wished  to  be  aught  but  chambermaids  and  boot 
blacks."15 

The  one  great  primal  right  of  man  is  the  right  to 
labor  and  to  live ;  the  right  to  have  the  proper  wage  of 
skill;  the  right  to  toil  wherever  human  needs  make 
work  for  human  hands.  Here  is  the  foundation  upon 
which  the  family  is  reared.  This  is  the  "door  of  hope," 
upon  whose  closing  follow  idleness  and  crime,  destitu 
tion  and  vice,  vagrancy  and  death,  for  the  masses  of 
the  race.  The  South  has  been  much  accused  of  clos 
ing  the  "door  of  hope"  to  the  negroes.  According  to 
the  testimony  of  the  sufferers  themselves  we  of  the 
North  are  surely  far  from  guiltless  in  this  respect  in 
our  relations  with  them. 

The  first  five  chapters  of  this  book  will  give  a  pic- 
of  the  status  of  the  negro  in  Ohio  before  the  Civil  War, 
with  especial  attention  to  the  legal  obstacles  put  in  his 

14  Springfield  Weekly  Republican,  Feb.  10,  1905. 

15  The  Philadelphia  Negro  1899,  pp.  395-396. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

way  to  keep  him  out  of  the  State  and  to  keep  him  down 
after  he  once  got  into  the  State.  These  obstacles  were 
the  laws  commonly  known  as  the  "Black  Laws."  These 
laws  were  found  in  every  Northern  State  but  were  of 
varying  degrees  of  rigor.  They  segregated  the  negroes 
as  an  inferior  class  under  grave  social,  civil,  and  polit 
ical  disabilities.  Without  going  into  details,  it  may  be 
said  that  in  the  Northwest  free  negroes  could  not  tes 
tify  against  a  white,  serve  on  juries,  vote,  or  send  their 
children  to  the  public  schools;  they  were  forbidden,  in 
some  cases,  to  enter  the  State  without  giving  bonds 
against  their  becoming  paupers.  Indiana  in  1851  by 
an  enormous  majority,  the  vote  standing  108,513  to 
20,951,  decreed  that  all  negroes  should  be  excluded 
from  coming  into  the  State.16  Illinois  on  June  17, 
1862,  gave  a  majority  of  100,590  out  of  a  total  of  243, 
202  votes  cast  on  the  proposition,  in  favor  of  the  con 
tinued  exclusion  of  the  negro  from  Illinois.  Other 
States  of  the  North  excluded  the  negro  and  none  of 
them  wanted  him. 

Suffrage  was  denied  to  the  negro  in  almost  all  the 
Northern  States  before  the  Civil  War.  When  the  Fif 
teenth  Amendment  was  adopted  in  1870  the  negro 
could  vote  nowhere  in  the  United  States  except  in  New 
York  and  five  of  the  New  England  States.  Connecti 
cut,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  and  Colorado  in  1865  vot 
ed  on  the  question  of  giving  the  franchise  to  negroes, 
and  in  each  case  it  was  decided  in  the  negative. 

Many  things  more  might  be  mentioned  here,  such 
as  the  treatment  of  the  negroes  in  New  York  City  dur 
ing  the  draft  riots  of  1863  and  the  Springfield,  Illi 
nois,  race  riots  of  very  recent  years,  to  show  that  in 
the  North  generally  there  has  been  and  still  is  the 
same  race  prejudice  as  in  the  State  of  Ohio  with  which 
this  book  is  particularly  concerned.  With  the  author 
of  Studies  in  the  American  Race  Problem  I  believe 
16  Indiana  Statesman,  Sept.  3,  1851. 


io  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

that  "the  people  of  this  country  cannot  forever  misun 
derstand  each  other  over  this  racial  problem, 
— and  in  all  this  I  hold  no  firmer  conviction 
than  that  the  greatest  beneficiary  of  a  better 
knowledge  of  each  other  by  American  white 
men  will  be  the  American  negro."  In  this  book  I  mean 
to  take  no  attitude  favoring  North  or  South,  white 
man  or  black  man,  but  I  endeavor  to  take  the  attitude 
of  the  scholar  seeking  truth  for  truth's  sake.  Some 
times  this  truth  will  make  the  white  man  blush,  and 
sometimes  it  will  make  the  colored  man  hang  his  head. 
But  in  both  cases  the  final  result  must  for  many  rea 
sons  be  beneficial.  The  joy  and  satisfaction  expressed 
by  so  many  of  the  colored  people  whom  I  interviewed 
over  the  prospect  of  having  the  whole  truth  revealed 
by  a  writer  of  the  white  race  furnished  the  biggest  sur 
prise  of  my  whole  investigation.  The  folloAving  ex 
cerpts  from  letters  written  to  the  author  by  Mr.  F.  D. 
Patterson,  a  large  and  prosperous  carriage  manufac 
turer  of  Greenfield,  Ohio,  and  a  graduate  of  the  Ohio 
State  University,  will  show  the  attitude  of  the  better 
class  of  the  negro  race:  "If  it  is  encouragement  to 
you  to  know  that  your  work  is  not  only  appreciated  by 
us  but  is  also  needed  by  our  entire  State  and  Nation, 
black  and  white,  you  have  every  reason  to  feel  encour 
aged.  The  man  who  can  tell  the  whole  truth,  the  real 
truth,  and  get  it  read,  is  the  one  we  most  need  now. 
We  think  sometimes  that  writers  on  both  sides  shrink 
from  the  whole  truth.  Men  of  our  race  simply  will 
not  see  and  appreciate  our  own  shortcomings  and  limi 
tations,  and  the  undoubted  "drag"  we  are  at  this  pres 
ent  time.  A  few  even  go  further  like  Air.  Washington 
and  then  we  "blush."  Men  of  your  race  insist  on  con 
fusing  the  issue  in  order  that  they  may  not  see.  It  is 
an  unpleasant  duty  to  be  sure  you  have  before  you,  but 
it  is  necessary.  Indeed,  it  is  an  opportunity  for  your 
race  that  only  a  few  such  men  as  yourself  will  succeed 


INTRODUCTION  n 

in  saving  and  improving  for  your  race.  The  man  who 
strips  the  subject  -'naked'  and  tells  the  truth  is  the 
man.  We  will  all  catch  up  with  him  in  a  few  years 
and  will  appreciate  him  then  if  not  now.  We  desire 
one-half  dozen  copies  of  your  book." 


PART   I 

THE  HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT 

CHAPTER  I. 

FEELING  TOWARD  THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL 
CONVENTION,  1802. 

The  first  constitutional  convention  for  the  State 
of  Ohio  assembled  in  the  town  of  Chillicothe  on  the 
first  Monday  in  November,  1802.  The  minutes1  of  this 
convention  are  very  brief  and  probably  very  incom 
plete,  but  from  them  we  can  easily  see  that  the  negro 
and  his  status  in  the  new  State  were  very  important 
issues. 

Six  different  motions  relating  to  the  negroes  were 
voted  upon,  and  each  one  of  these  resulted  in  a  close 
vote,  the  ayes  and  nays  being  recorded  in  each  in 
stance.  We  shall  consider  them  separately  and  in  the 
order  of  their  appearance  in  the  convention. 

The  committee  on  electoral  qualifications  report 
ed  and  granted  suffrage  only  to  the  "white  male  in 
habitants."2  A  motion  was  immediately  made  to  strike 
out  the  word  "white."  This  motion  was  lost  by  a  vote 
of  14  to  19. 

A  second  motion  was  then  made  to  grant  suffrage 
to  those  negroes  only  who  were  then  resident  in  the 
State  if  within  a  specified  time  they  made  a  record  of 
their  citizenship.  This  motion  was  carried,  the  vote 
being  almost  the  reverse  of  that  of  the  preceding 
motion,  standing  19  to  15. 

The  friends  of  the  negro  now  took  heart  and  im 
mediately  introduced  another  motion  to  this  effect: 

1  Journal   of   Const.   Con.   1802.    Reprinted  in  index  to   Senate 
Journal  of  1827. 

2  Journal  of  Const.  Con.  1802.    Nov.  22. 


14  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

"Provided  that  the  male  descendants  of  such  male  ne 
groes  and  nmlattoes  as  shall  be  recorded  shall  be  en 
titled  to  the  same  privilege."  This  motion  was  lost  by 
one  vote,  17  voting  against  it  and  16  in  its  favor. 

A  fourth  motion  on  the  negro  question  was  then 
made  in  the  following  words:  "No  negro  or  mulatto 
shall  ever  be  eligible  to  any  office,  civil  or  military,  or 
give  their  oath  in  any  court  of  justice  against  a  white 
person,  be  subject  to  do  military  duty,  or  pay  a  poll 
tax  in  this  State :  Provided  always  and  it  is  fully  un 
derstood  and  declared  that  all  negroes  and  mulattoes, 
now  in,  or  who  may  hereafter  reside  in  this  State, 
shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  of  citizens  of  this 
State,  not  excepted  by  this  constitution."  This  mo 
tion  was  carried  by  a  vote  of  19  to  16. 

A  fifth  motion  was  then  made  to  rescind  the  ac 
tion  taken  on  the  second  motion,  previously  mentioned, 
where  by  a  vote  of  19  to  15  they  had  given  the  right  to 
vote  to  colored  men  resident  in  Ohio  if  they  should 
make  record  of  their  citizenship  by  a  certain  time.  The 
vote  on  this  motion  to  rescind  was  a  tie,  17  yeas  and  17 
nays.  By  the  deciding  vote  of  the  president,  Edward 
Tiffin,  the  motion  carried,  and  the  negro  was  thereby 
completely  excluded  from  the  voting  privilege. 

A  sixth  motion  followed,  having  as  its  object  the 
blotting  out  of  the  action  in  the  fourth  motion,  where 
by  the  negro  was  declared  forever  ineligible  to  any  of 
fice,  civil  or  military,  barred  from  giving  oath  against 
a  white  person,  etc.  This  motion  carried  by  one  vote, 
yeas  17,  nays  16. 

The  discussions  regarding  the  status  of  the  negro 
were  becoming  so  warm  and  the  two  sides  were  so  ev 
enly  balanced  that  fears  were  entertained  that  the  ob 
ject  of  their  coming  together  would  be  wholly  defeat 
ed.  This,  according  to  Burnett,  so  frightened  the 
members  of  the  convention  that  they  abandoned  all 
the  propositions  that  had  been  made,  and  proceeded 
to  form  a  constitution  having  no  direct  reference  to 


HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  I5 

the  status  of  the  negro,  but  embracing  only  the  free 
white  population,  who  alone  were  represented  in  the 
body.3 

The  wisdom,  or  necessity,  of  this  move  will  be 
plainly  seen  when  we  look  for  a  moment  at  the  votes 
recorded  on  the  six  above-mentioned  motions.  There 
were  201  votes  cast.  99  were  in  the  interest  of  the  ne 
gro,  and  102  votes  were  against  him.  There  were 
twelve  members  of  the  convention  that  voted  for  him 
on  every  one  of  the  six  motions,  and  thirteen  members 
who  voted  against  him  on  all  six.  So  there  were  three 
more  votes  cast  against  him  than  for  him,  and  there 
was  one  more  of  those  who  stood  solidly  against  him 
than  there  were  of  those  who  remained  constantly  for 
him. 

This  is  important,  as  showing  the  feeling  toward 
the  negro  as  a  man,  a  free  man,  one  century  ago. 
Should  he  receive  the  rights  and  privileges  as  citizens 
that  were  enjoyed  without  question  by  the  worst  of 
the  white  race?  This  convention  of  representative 
men  decided  that  he  should  not. 

So  far  we  have  considered  the  feelings  of  the  con 
vention  toward  the  negro  as  a  prospective  citizen.  We 
shall  now  look  into  what  they  thought  of  putting  him 
in  slavery.  One  would  hardly  think  that  a  prop 
osition  to  establish  slavery  in  one  of  the  States  of  the 
Northwest  Territory,  which  had  been  declared  free 
forever,  would  be  entertained  so  soon  after  the  decisive 
vote  on  the  Northwest  Ordinance.  But  it  was  enter 
tained  and  even  came  within  one  vote  of  passing  the 
convention.  Many  maintained  that  the  provisions  of 
the  Ordinance  of  1787  were  binding  on  the  district  on 
ly  as  a  territory  and,  consequently,  that  Ohio,  as  a 
State,  was  free  to  determine  for  herself  whether  she 
should  admit  or  exclude  slavery.4  There  were  others 

3  Burnett's  Notes  on  Northwest  Territory,  355. 

4  This  view  in  more  recent  years  is  accepted  generally  as  the 
correct  one. 


!6  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

who  thought  that  the  growth  of  the  State  would  be 
greatly  quickened  by  allowing  Southern  planters  to 
immigrate  with  their  slaves;  hence  they  desired  to 
sanction  slavery  for  a  term  of  years. 

The  question  of  slavery  first  arose  in  the  commit 
tee  on  the  formation  of  a  bill  of  rights,  of  which 
John  W.  Brown  of  Hamilton  county  was  the  chair 
man.  Mr.  Brown  submitted  the  following  statement 
to  the  committee :  "No  person  shall  be  held  in  slavery, 
if  a  male,  after  he  is  thirty-five  years  of  age;  or,  if  a 
female,  after  twenty-five  years  of  age."5 

Ephraim  Cutler,  a  member  of  this  committee, 
moved  that  this  section  be  laid  on  the  table  until  the 
next  meeting  of  the  committee,  and  suggested  that 
each  member  of  the  committee,  "to  avoid  any  warmth 
of  feeling,"  should  prepare  a  section  in  writing  which 
would  express  fully  his  views  upon  the  subject.  The 
committee  met  again  the  next  morning,  and  Judge 
Cutler,  being  called  upon  for  his  statement  of  the  sec 
tion,  read  to  them  as  follows : 

"There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary 
servitude  in  this  State,  otherwise  than  for  punishment 
of  crimes  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  con 
victed  ;  Nor  shall  any  male  person,  arrived  at  the  age 
of  twenty-one  years,  or  female  person,  arrived  at  the 
age  of  eighteen  years,  be  held  to  serve  any  person  as  a 
servant,  "under  pretense  of  indenture  or  otherwise, 
unless  such  person  shall  enter  into  such  indenture 
while  in  a  state  of  perfect  freedom,  and  on  condition 
of  a  ~bona  fide  consideration  received  for  their  service, 
except  as  before  excepted.  Nor  shall  any  indenture  of 
any  negro  or  mulatto,  hereafter  made  and  executed  out 
of  the  State,  or  if  made  in  the  State,  where  the  term  of 
service  exceeds  one  year,  be  of  the  least  validity,  except 
those  given  in  the  case  of  apprenticeships."6 

This  wording  of  the  section,  completely  prohibit- 

5  J.  P.  Cutler,  Life  and  Times  of  Judge  Ephraim  Cutler,  74. 
6T.  P.  Cutler,  Life  and  Times  of  Judge  Ephraim  Cutler,  75. 


HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  17 

ing  slavery  and  also  wiping  out  long  indenture  and  ap 
prenticeship,  was  very  different  from  Mr.  Brown's  sec 
tion,  which  practically  would  have  admitted  slavery 
into  the  State  in  full  force,  but  nominally  would  have 
circumscribed  it  with  age  limits. 

The  committee  debated  the  section  for  some  time 
and  finally  by  a  vote  of  five  to  four  put  through 
Judge  Cutler's  wording  of  it.  When  it  was  reported 
to  the  convention  another  struggle  took  place,  and 
again  it  passed  with  the  bare  majority  of  one  vote  and 
was  incorporated  into  the  constitution  without 
change.  Thus  near  did  Ohio,  the  first  State  to  be  carv 
ed  out  of  the  Northwest  Territory,  come  to  setting  the 
precedent  of  establishing  slavery  on  this  ground  that 
the  national  government  had  declared  should  be  for 
ever  free  from  it. 

The  make-up  of  this  convention  is  interesting. 
While  we  find  some  New  Englanders,  coming  mostly 
form  the  north-eastern  and  south-eastern  parts  of  the 
State,  from  the  Western  Keserve  and  the  Marietta  col 
ony,  by  far  the  most  of  the  members  were  from  the 
Southern  States  of  Virginia  and  Kentucky. 

But  we  find  them  badly  divided  and  mixed  up  on 
the  negro  question.  There  is  little  evidence  of  the 
Southerners  voting  solidly  against  the  negro  and  the 
New  Englanders  for  him.  For  instance,  Charles  W. 
Byrd,  a  Virginian  of  the  Virginians,  stood  firmly  for 
the  electoral  right  to  be  given  to  the  negroes  then  resi 
dent  in  Ohio  and  also  to  their  descendants,  while  on 
the  other  hand  Huntington  of  Cleveland,  and  Mc- 
Intyre  of  Marietta,  scions  of  New  England  stock,  were 
with  Massie  and  Worthington,  both  from  Virginia, 
against  negro  suffrage.  On  a  motion  made  in  the  con 
vention  to  strike  out  a  large  portion  of  the  section  for 
bidding  slavery,  introduced  by  Judge  Cutler,  we  find 
the  following  Virginians  voting  in  the  negative: 
Abrams,  Baldwin,  Browne,  Byrd,  Carpenter,  Darling 
ton,  Donaldson,  Goforth,  Kirker  and  Worthington. 


HAP  1-OHIO-  fgOO 
WfGRO  POPULATION 
TOTAL   337 


W A  VN E  - —  -  -  - 


COLORS 
0-MO 

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VOTES   IH 

DETERM//Y1NC  STATl/5    Of  f*EE 
SIX  MOTIONS    MADE,***)  MAP  SHOW5   V0H  OF  EACH 

OW  EA(TM 


.G\H  HMRO  BALLOT— 
BALLOT  ro 


TO    EX<HI/PF  NEGRO   TJUIA  ALL 
FR^M   JlJd/VT  TO   TEWPY  fidAl 
",    TO     RtSCIHD    MOTION    SI     - 


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5^»^/   P/4/lt/ 


VOTE      AS  fJKJAW 


20  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

Of  these  last  named  gentlemen  the  following, 
Abrams,  Baldwin,  Carpenter,  Darlington,  Donaldson, 
Kirker,  and  Worthington,  although  they  did  not  ap 
pear  to  want  the  negroes  in  slavery  in  Ohio,  yet  were 
most  ardent  in  keeping  the  free  negro  also  out  of  the 
State,  as  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  on  every  one  of  the 
six  motions  made  in  the  convention  on  the  status  of 
the  colored  man  they  voted  against  him. 

In  this  convention  that  sat  a  century  ago,  it  is 
easy  to  see  the  same  human  nature  working  in  regard 
to  the  negro  as  at  the  present  day,  to  see  the  same  in 
consistencies  in  the  statement  of  the  feelings  of  indi 
viduals,  and  to  see  staunch  supporters  of  equal  rights 
and  equally  ardent  opponents.  To  illustrate  my  mean 
ing  further  than  was  brought  out  in  the  preceding  par 
agraph,  let  us  consider  a  few  individual  votes.  Browne, 
of  Hamilton  county,  voted  for  giving  the  ballot  to  all 
negroes  and,  when  this  motion  was  lost  and  another 
made  to  give  the  ballot  to  the  negroes  then  living  in 
Ohio,  he  voted  against  it.  This  same  man  we  have  al 
ready  found  asking  that  negro  slavery  be  introduced 
into  the  State.  Byrd  and  Morrow  of  Hamilton  county, 
Grubb  of  Eoss  county,  and  Darlington  of  Adams,  fa 
vored  negro  suffrage  and  at  the  same  time  were  un 
willing  for  negroes  to  hold  any  offices  or  be  permitted 
to  testify  against  white  men.  Several  members  we 
find  voting  one  way  at  one  time  and  later  voting  just  to 
the  contrary.  Thirteen  of  the  thirty-five  members 
were  against  the  negro  on  every  measure,  and  twelve 
were  for  him  with  equal  consistency.  And  the  more 
one  studies  the  votes  of  this  convention  the  more  he  is 
convinced  that  what  is  true  today  was  true  at  that 
time;  namely,  that  white  men  in  dealing  with  the  ne 
gro  problem  are  controlled  more  by  feeling  than  by 
reason.  The  continuance  of  this  fact  throughout  the 
period  reviewed  will  be  one  of  the  most  evident  points 
brought  out  by  this  book. 


CHAPTER  II. 

LEGAL  STATUS,  1802—1849. 

We  have  seen  in  the  study  of  the  constitutional 
convention  that  much  effort  was  put  forth  to  establish 
clearly  the  position  of  negroes  in  the  body  politic.  This 
effort  came  to  naught,  for  the  convention  finished  its 
work  without  once  incorporating  the  word  "negro,"  or 
alluding  to  the  race  except  in  the  article  on  slavery. 
Negroes  were  not  recognized  as  having  any  political 
existence  and  were  given  no  political  rights.  They 
were  to  occupy  the  same  relation  to  the  government  as 
Indians  or  unnaturalized  foreigners.  All  the  rights 
and  privileges  under  the  constitution  were  given  to 
white  men.  The  enumeration  for  purposes  of  appor 
tionment  of  the  senators  and  representatives  was  to  be 
"of  all  white  male  inhabitants-"1  Article  IV,  Sec.  1, 
says,  "In  all  elections,  all  white  male  inhabitants, 
above  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  shall  enjoy  the  right 
of  an  elector."  Thus  did  the  organic  law  of  the  State 
indirectly  place  the  negroes  outside  the  body  politic. 
With  these  exceptions  the  Legislature  was  left  free  to 
dispose  of  them  as  it  saw  fit. 

The  matter  was  very  soon  taken  up  by  this  body. 
In  1804  the  Legislature  passed  the  first  of  the  laws,  af 
terwards  so  well  known  as  the  Black  Laws.  This 
law  was  "to  regulate  black  and  mulatto  persons"2  and 
to  prescribe  the  manner  in  which  they  might  enter  the 
State.  It  declared  that  no  negro  or  mulatto  should  be 
allowed  to  settle  in  the  State  unless  he  could  furnish 
a  certificate  from  some  court  in  the  United  States  of 
his  actual  freedom.  The  blacks  already  living  in  the 
State  must  register  before  the  following  June  with 
the  county  clerk,  giving  the  names  of  their  children. 
For  each  name  a  fee  of  twelve  and  one-half  cents  was 

1  Const,  Art.  I,  Sec.  2,6. 

a  Passed  Jan.  5,  1804,  iaws  of  Ohio  II 163. 


22  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

to  be  charged.  No  white  man  could  employ  a  negro 
for  one  hour  unless  the  negro  could  show  a  certificate 
of  freedom,  and  any  violator  of  this  law  was  subject  to 
a  fine  of  from  ten  to  fifty  dollars.  The  same  penalty 
was  attached  to  harboring,  or  hindering  the  capture 
of,  a  fugitive  slave.  Besides  this  penalty  the  white 
man  employing  a  negro  was  obliged  to  pay  fifty  cents 
per  day  for  his  services  to  his  owner,  if  one  should  ap 
pear. 

This  law  of  1804  was  not  yet  stringent  enough  to 
suit  the  people  of  Ohio,  and  we  find  that  three  years 
later,  1807,  the  Legislature  proceeded  to  strike  a  hard 
er  blow  at  negro  immigration  by  so  amending  the  pre 
vious  act  that  (1)  no  negro  should  be  allowed  to  set 
tle  in  Ohio  unless  he  could  within  twenty  days  give 
bonds  to  the  amount  of  five  hundred  dollars  signed  by 
two  bondsmen,  who  should  guarantee  his  good  behav 
ior  and  support,  (2)  the  fine  for  harboring  or  conceal 
ing  a  fugitive  was  raised  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 
dollars,  one-half  to  go  to  the  informer,  (3)  the  propo 
sition  made  in  the  constitutional  convention  (1802) 
to  prohibit  negro  evidence  against  a  white  person,  was 
enacted,  and  Ohio,  following  the  lead  of  slave 
holding  States,  was  the  first3  of  the  Northern  States  to 
declare  that  negroes  should  not  be  allowed  to  give  evi 
dence  in  any  cause,  or  matter  of  controversy,  when 
either  party  to  the  same  was  a  white  person ;  or  in  any 
prosecution  of  the  State  against  any  white  person.4 

In  the  Act  of  Dec.  30,  1803,  organizing  the  militia 
of  the  State  it  was  declared  that  white  people  only 
were  eligible. 

3  Ohio's  example  was   followed  by  two  of  the  other  Northern 
States.     Illinois  by  Act  of  February2,  1827,  said  that  "no  negro  or 
mulatto  shall  be  a  witness  in  any  court  against  a  white  person."    In 
diana,  in  an  Act  approved  December  20,  1865,  declared  that  no  negro 
should  bear  witness  against  a  white  man  if  he  had  entered,  or  should 
afterward  enter,  the  State  contrary  to  the  thirteenth  article  of  the 
State  Constitution,  forbidding  their  immigration. 

4  Act  January  25,  1807,  Laws  of  Ohio,  V:53. 


LEGAIv  STATUS  23 

By  the  Act  of  February  9, 1831,  entitled  "An  Act 
Relating  to  Juries,"  it  was  declared  that  all  jurors 
should  have  the  "qualifications  of  electors,"  which  of 
course  deprived  the  colored  men  of  this  privilege. 

In  1838,  March  7,  the  Legislature  passed  an  act 
for  the  support  of  common  schools,  to  provide  a  fund 
"for  the  education  of  all  the  white  youth  in  this 
State,"3  No  provision  for  the  education  of  the  colored 
children  had  ever  been  made  by  the  Legislature,  and  it 
was  not  provided  in  this  act.0  The  property  of  black 
and  mulatto  persons  was  exempted  from  taxes  in  rais 
ing  this  fund.7 

The  first  State  provision  for  the  education  of  col 
ored  youth  was  in  the  Act  of  February  24,  1848.  By 
this  act,  which  was  so  nearly  a  farce  that  it  was  re 
pealed  the  following  year,  the  property  of  the  negroes 
was  to  be  taxed  for  the  establishment  of  separate 
schools  for  themselves  wherever  the  number  of  colored 
youth  of  school  age  numbered  twenty.  If  there  were 
not  that  number,  the  taxes  on  the  property  of  the  col 
ored  people  were  to  be  turned  into  the  common  fund, 
and  it  was  the  duty  of  the  white  people  "to  admit  said 
black  or  colored  children  "into  the  white  schools"  up 
on  the  same  terms  as  if  they  were  white  -.Provided*  no 
written  objection  be  filed  with  the  directors,  signed  by 
any  person  having  a  child  in  such  school,  or  by  any 
legal  voter  of  such  district."9 

Such  were  the  famous  Black  Laws.  To  sum  them 
up  briefly:  (a)  negroes  were  forbidden  to  enter  the 
State  (we  say  forbidden  because  it  was  virtually  im 
possible  for  them  to  fulfill  the  entrance  requirements) . 

5  Act  of  March  7,  1838,  Sec.  i,  Laws  of  Ohio,  XXXVI,  21. 

6  When  the  bill  was  up  for  consideration,  Mr.  King  moved  to 
strike  out  the  word  "white"  wherever  it  occurred  therein,  which  was 
defeated  by  a  vote  of  30  to  2,  Messrs.  King  and  Wade  alone  voting 
in  the  affirmative. — Senate  Journal,  XXXVI. 

7  Act  of  March  7,  1838,  Sec.  2. 

8  Emphasis  mine. 

0  Act  of  February  24,  1848,  Sec.  5. 


24  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

(b)  They  were  debarred  from  the  militia,  (c)  They 
could  not  under  the  existing  conditions  send  their 
children  to  school,  (d)  They  could  bear  no  witness 
against  white  men,  no  matter  what  were  the  circum 
stances,  (e)  They  were  tried  by  juries  of  w^hite  men. 
(f )  They  could  not  work  unless  they  carried  their  cer 
tificates  of  freedom  about  them. 

The  restriction  imposed  by  the  Black  Laws  fell 
with  full  force  upon  all  people  having  any  negro  blood 
in  their  veins  until  the  year  1831,  when  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  State  in  the  case  of  Polly  Gray  vs.  Ohio 
declared  that  a  person  having  more  white  blood  than 
negro  blood  in  his  veins  was  a  white  person  and  free 
from  the  disabilities  of  the  Black  Laws.  The  case 
leading  to  this  decision  involved  the  eligibility  of  a 
negro  as  a  witness  in  the  trial  of  a  quadroon  charged 
with  crime.  The  decision  interpreted  the  word  mu 
latto  in  the  acts  of  1804  and  1807  to  mean  a  half-breed 
and  held  that  a  man  of  a  race  nearer  white  than  a  mu 
latto  should  be  given  the  privileges  of  the  whites.10 

This  decision  met  with  stubborn  resistance 
throughout  the  State,  and  we  find  the  same  question 
being  carried  up  to  the  Supreme  Court  time  and 
again11  until  the  decision  was  finally  set  aside.  In  the 
case  of  Williams12  vs.  Directors  of  School  District  No. 
6,  etc.,  in  1834,  the  decision  was  upheld,  and  also  twice 
in  the  year  1842  ;13  but  in  the  last  two  cases  it  was  de 
cided  by  a  bare  majority  vote,  and  much  bitterness  was 
manifested  in  the  discussions.  Justice  N.  C.  Read, 

10  Ohio  Reports  IV,  345- 

11 1834.     Williams  vs.  School  Directors,  Wright's  Reports  I,  78. 
1842.    Edwill  Thacker  vs.  J.  Hawk  et  al.    Ohio  Reports  II. 
1842.    Parker  Jeffries  vs.  Ankeny  et  al.     Ohio  Reports  II,  372- 

1859.  Van  Camp  vs.  Logan  Board  of  Educ.,  November  Ses 
sion. 

12  Hamilton  County,  May  Term,  1834.     Wrights  Reports  I,  78. 

13  Parker  Jeffries  vs.  John  Ankeny  et  al    Ohio  Reports  II,  372- 

373- 

Edwill  Thacker  vs.  John  Hawk  et  al,  1842.    Ohio  Reports,  II. 


LEGAL  STATUS  25 

in  dissenting  from  the  opinion  of  the  majority  in  the 
Edwill  Thacker  case  where  the  court  had  declared 
that  a  man  more  than  one-half  white  or  less  than  one- 
half  negro  should  be  privileged  to  vote,  said:  "The 
constitution,  in  defining  the  color  qualification  of 
an  elector,  does  not  employ  the  phrases, — partly  white 
—more  than  black — all  persons  less  than  half  black, — 
but  simply  the  word  white.  This  word  'white'  means 
pure  white,  unmixed." 

Having  looked  at  the  enactments  and  the  Su 
preme  Court  interpretations,  let  us  now  consider  why 
these  laws  were  passed  and  retained  on  the  statute 
books.  According  to  the  United  States  census,  there 
were  337  colored  people  in  Ohio  in  1800;  1,890  in 
1810 ;  4,723  in  1820 ;  9,586  in  1830 ;  and  17,342  in  1840. 
From  this  we  may  see  that  they  came  into  the  State 
rapidly.  Their  rate  of  increase  was  usually  greater 
than  of  the  whites  during  these  decades.  They  nearly 
all  settled  in  the  southern  counties.  Most  of  the  white 
people  of  this  region  were  from  Kentucky  and  Virgin 
ia.  They  looked  upon  the  free  negroes  as  being  beneath 
respect.  Many  other  whites  were  bound  up  socially 
and  in  a  business  way  with  these  southerners  and 
adopted  their  views.  Most  of  the  population  of  the 
State  was  in  the  southern  portion  at  this  time,  and 
of  course  it  dominated  the  Legislature's  attitude.  Fur 
ther,  many  slaves  were  undoubtedly  escaping  from 
their  masters  in  Kentucky  and  Virginia,  and  the  com 
plaints  of  their  masters  that  they  were  being  received 
in  Ohio  of  course  caught  the  ear  of  their  friends  in 
Ohio,  who  proceeded  to  have  laws  made  restricting  im 
migration  and  incidentally  facilitating  the  recapture 
of  fugitive  slaves. 

The  white  people  of  Ohio  did  not  want  the  ne 
groes  among  them.  This  is  a  most  evident  fact.  Why 
did  they  not  want  them?  To  what  extent  were  they 
justified  on  the  grounds  of  expediency?  The  answer 
to  these  questions  is  most  interesting.  What  was 


26  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

there  about  the  negroes  escaping  from  the  plantation, 
or  coming  from  a  Southern  State  in  any  capacity,  that 
could  make  them  desirable  citizens?  Were  they  intel 
ligent  citizens?  They  had  been  kept  by  law  in  complete 
illiteracy.  In  Africa  their  ancestors  had  lived  in  hea 
then  ignorance  and  in  America  the  opportunities  of 
Christian  enlightenment  for  them  had  been  very 
slight.  Were  they  of  value  industrially?  Many 
were  lazy  and  shiftless;  almost  all  of  them  had  been 
trained  as  pieces  of  machinery  to  do  the  work  of  a 
certain  kind  that  required  no  thinking.  Generally 
this  kind  of  work  was  not  to  be  had  in  the  North.  Many 
of  the  negroes  that  came  from  the  South  were  old  and 
worn  out.  In  this  state  they  had  been  freed  by  their 
masters  and,  being  unable  to  stand  the  rigors  of  the 
laws  against  free  colored  people  in  their  native  States, 
drifted  north.  What  then  was  there  about  the  negroes 
to  appeal  for  help  from  the  white  people  of  Ohio? 
But  one  thing,  their  utter  helplessness,  their  abject 
need  of  philanthropy ;  and  this  did  not  make  a  strong 
impression  upon  a  majority  of  the  voters  of  Ohio. 
Hence  we  find  the  Black  Laws. 

The  numbers  of  blacks  entering  Ohio,  and  espe 
cially  their  character,  actually  frightened  many  most 
excellent  citizens;  and  one  must  sympathize  with 
them,  when  he  sees  but  a  few  of  the  conditions. 

On  the  14th  of  April,  1827,  seventy  negroes  in  one 
company  settled  in  Lawrence  county.  They  were  a 
part  of  a  stock  of  slaves  emancipated  by  a  man  in  Vir 
ginia.  "These  unfortunate  creatures  have  little  or  no 
property  of  value — many  of  them  ragged  and  dirty. 
The  writer  of  this  would  censure  none  for  acts  of  kind 
ness  to  such,  yet  as  he  regards  the  moral  character  and 
welfare  of  society,  he  cannot  view  these  rapid  acces 
sions  without  some  degree  of  alarm."14 

The  following  from  The  Supporter,  a  weekly 
newspaper  published  at  Chilli cothe,  June  16,  1819,  is 

14  Ohio  State  Journal,  May  3,  1827. 


MAP  3    OH I0-I?30 

NEGRO    POPULATION 
TOTAL  95-86 


\ASnrAWto 


28  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

so  typical  and  so  expressive  that  I  shall  quote  at  some 
length : 

"By  the  following  letter  from  a  gentleman  on  a 
tour  through  Virginia  to  the  editor,  it  will  appear  that 
we  are  to  have  a  colony  of  free  negroes  (no  less  than 
five  hundred)  planted  in  our  adjoining  county.  Much 
as  we  commiserate  the  situation  of  those  who,  when 
emancipated,  are  obliged  to  leave  their  country  or 
again  be  enslaved,  we  trust  our  constitution  and  laws 
are  not  so  defective  as  to  suffer  us  to  be  overrun  by 
such  a  wretched  population : 

"  'Richmond,  Va.,  May  10,  1819. 

"  'Dear  Sir : — Since  my  arrival  in  this  county 
I  have  understood  that  a  large  family  of  negroes, 
consisting  of  about  five  hundred,  have  lately  been 
liberated  and  are  to  be  marched  to  Ohio,  and  there 
settled  on  land  provided  for  them  agreeably  to 
the  will  of  a  Mr.  Gess,  who  formerly  owned  them. 
There  are  persons  now  engaged  in  collecting  the 
poor  miserable  beings  from  different  quarters  and 
driving  them  like  cattle  to  Goochland  county, 
from  whence  they  will  take  up  their  line  of  march 
to  Ohio.  I  am  told  that  they  are  perhaps  as  de 
praved  and  ignorant  a  set  of  people  as  any  of  their 
kind  and  that  their  departure  is  hailed  with  joy 
by  all  those  who  have  lived  in  their  neighbor 
hood.  Ohio  will  suffer  seriously  from  the  iniqui 
tous  policy  pursued  by  the  States  of  Virginia  and 
Kent,  in  driving  all  their  free  negroes  upon  us. 
The  people  of  Ohio  are  bound  in  justice  to  them 
selves  to  adopt  some  counteracting  measure. 
Many  people  here  are  of  the  opinion  that  we  may 
be  compelled  to  introduce  slavery  in  Ohio  in  self- 
defense,  and  they  appear  to  be  gratified  that  we 
are  suffering  many  of  the  evils  attending  it,  with- 


LEGAL  STATUS  29 

out  (as  they  call  it)  any  of  the  benefits.  I  have 
been  gratified  to  tell  them  what  I  believe  to  be 
true — that  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  people  of 
Ohio  are  so  opposed  to  slavery  that  they  would 
not  consent  to  its  introduction  under  any  circum 
stances;  and,  although  they  commiserate  the  sit 
uation  of  those  who  have  been  liberated  and  com 
pelled  to  abandon  their  country  or  again  be  made 
slaves,  yet  in  justice  to  themselves  and  their  pos 
terity  they  will  refuse  admittance  to  such  a  pop 
ulation. 

Yours  most  ob't., 

<A.  T.' 

"(Editor)  We  understand  from  a  respectable  au 
thority  that  270  of  said  negroes  have  landed  at  Kipley 
and  are  to  settle  near  the  center  of  Brown  county  on 
White  Oak,  the  residue  of  500  to  follow  soon  after."15 

John  Randolph,  of  Koanoke,  before  his  death  in 
1833  set  free  518  slaves16  and  bought  for  them  a  large 
estate  in  Mercer  County,  Ohio.  It  was  arranged  that 
each  one  was  to  have  40  acres  and  a  cabin.  The  white 
inhabitants  of  the  county  rose  en  masse  against  the  in 
flux  of  the  negroes,  and  Judge  Leigh  distributed  them 
around  Troy,  Piqua,  Sidney  and  Xenia.17 

From  a  perusal  of  these  incidents,  of  which  there 
are  many,  one  can  see  the  problem  that  confronted  the 
people  of  Ohio  in  the  early  days  and  see  the  enactment 
of  the  Black  Laws  from  a  little  different  point  of  view 
than  the  one  generally  taken.  They  justified  themselv 
es  in  their  action  on  the  ground  that  it  was  necessary 
for  the  preservation  of  the  prosperity  of  the  State  and 
for  the  good  of  their  posterity.  Judge  Burnet  of  Cin 
cinnati  defended  the  laws  as  "justifiable  and  com- 

15  The  Supporter,  Chillicothe,  June  16,  1819. 

16  Article  on  John  Randolph,  "The  American  Cyclopedia." 

17  Cincinnati  Enquirer,  July  31,  1909. 


30  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

mendable."18    The  committee  on  the  colored  popula 
tion,  reporting  to  the  Legislature  in  1832,  said : 

"We  must  exclude  a  people  whose  residence 
among  us  is  degrading  to  themselves,  and  fraught  with 
so  much  evil  to  the  community.  The  negroes  form  a 
distinct  and  degraded  caste  and  are  forever  excluded 
by  the  fiat  of  society  and  the  laws  of  the  land  from  all 
hopes  of  equality  in  social  intercourse  and  political 
privileges.  Even  now,  when  this  people  constitute 
less  than  one-hundredth  part  of  our  population,  the 
evils  arising  from  their  residence  among  us  are  seri 
ously  felt,  and  especially  where  they  are  congregated 
in  considerable  numbers  in  the  larger  cities:  (1)  By 
the  exclusion  of  a  large  amount  of  the  labor  of  white 
men  who  will  not  degrade  themselves  in  society  by 
adopting  the  employment  of,  and  coming  into  compe 
tition  with,  the  blacks,  (2).  By  the  demoralization  of 
those  white  citizens  who  do,  by  association  with,  and 
adopting  the  ordinary  avocations  of,  blacks,  lose  that 
standing  and  consideration  in  society  which  is  one  of 
the  strongest  safeguards  against  vicious  conduct,  (3) 
By  habits  of  petty  pilfering  and  mendicity,  which  are, 
and  must  of  necessity  be,  prevalent  among  a  people 
isolated  in  society  and  deprived  of  the  highest  motives 
to  honest  industry ;  and  which,  besides  imposing  on  the 
community  the  burden  of  an  idle  population,  fill  our 
jails  with  criminals  of  the  hopeless  description,  (4) 
And  lastly,  by  the  injurious  effects  upon  our  youth,  of 
the  residence  among  us  of  a  people  whose  situation  is 
an  anomaly  in  our  social  system  and  a  libel  upon  our 
free  and  equal  laws — a  people  whose  degraded  and  de 
pendent  condition  and  dissolute  conduct  furnish  at 
the  same  time  examples  of  depravity  and  facilities 
for  the  commission  of  juvenile  offenses."19 

While  different  reasons  may  be  found  in  the  above 
extract  for  the  legislation  against  the  negro,  there  is 

18  Niles'  Register,  XXXVIII,  145. 
ia  Ohio  State  Journal,  Feb.  i,  1832. 


STATUS  31 

one  that  stands  out  most  prominently — and  that  is  the 
antipathy  and  contempt  entertained  by  the  whites  to 
ward  the  negro.  This  fact  is  most  vividly  brought  out 
by  the  remarks  of  Mr.  Worthington  of  Boss  county, 
made  when  speaking  before  the  House  upon  the  above 
committee  report.  He  said : 

"Never  can  we  expect  any  elevation  of  moral  sen 
timent  from  a  people  upon  whom  society  has  affixed 
the  brand  of  infamy  from  their  birth,  with  whom  it  is 
considered  disgraceful  for  the  meanest  white  man  to 
associate.  Are  not  these  people  excluded  by  our  con 
stitution  from  the  right  of  suffrage  and  by  our  laws 
from  the  benefits  and  blessings  of  free  schools;  and 
this,  too,  from  the  dire  necessity  imposed  by  the  feeling 
of  the  community  that  their  very  touch  is  contamina 
tion?  Are  not  such  as  these  the  benefits  accorded  to 
those  who  are  clothed  by  the  sable  skin  of  the  Af 
rican?"20 

Having  seen  what  the  Black  Laws  were  and  why 
they  were  enacted,  let  us  now  consider  how  they  were 
enforced. 

The  law  requiring  a  negro  to  give  bond  for  five 
hundred  dollars  and  to  exhibit  and  have  recorded  a 
certificate  of  freedom  before  he  could  settle  in  the 
State  was  probably  the  least  strictly  enforced  of  any 
of  the  Black  Laws;  But  we  cannot  say  that  it  was  a 
dead  letter  by  any  means.  Mr.  Worthington,  speak 
ing  before  the  House  in  1832,  said  that  this  was  proved 
by  the  fact  "that  Ohio,  although  nearly  half-encir 
cled  by  slave  States,  contained  a  less  percentage  of 
blacks  than  almost  any  other  State  in  the  Union."21 
A  gentleman  writing  in  the  Ohio  State  Journal  in 
the  issue  of  May  3, 1827,  about  the  company  of  seventy 
negroes  settling  in  Lawrence  county,  stated  that 
many  of  them  had  already  obtained  security  as  the  law 

20  Ohio  State  Journal,  Feb.  i,  1832. 

21  Ohio  State  Journal,  Feb.  I,  1832. 


32  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

required  and  that  the  rest  would  do  so  within  twenty 
days.    William  Jay  in  1836  said : 

"A  large  proportion  of  the  present  colored  pop 
ulation  of  the  State  of  Ohio  must  have  entered  it  in 
ignorance  of  this  iniquitous  law,  or  in  defiance  of  it, 
That  the  law  has  not  been  universally  enforced  prov 
es  that  the  people  of  Ohio  are  less  profligate  than  their 
Legislature;  that  it  has  remained  on  the  statute  book 
thirty-two  years  proves  the  depraved  state  of  public 
opinion  and  the  horrible  persecution  to  which  the 
colored  people  are  legally  exposed.  But  let  it  not 
be  supposed  that  this  vile  law  is  in  fact  obsolete."22 

In  the  spring  of  1829,  the  Supreme  Court,  sitting 
in  Cincinnati,  declared  this  law  to  be  constitutional.23 
In  many  localities,  where  the  negroes  were  especially 
hated,  the  white  people  began  immediately  to  enforce 
the  law  with  vigor. 

On  January  21,  1830,  all  colored  people  in  Ports 
mouth  (a  town  in  the  southern  part  of  the  State  on 
the  Ohio  river)  were  forcibly  deported  from  the  town, 
according  to  N.  W.  Evans  in  his  History  of  Scioto 
County.  They  were  not  only  warned  to  go,  but  they 
were  driven  out  by  order  of  the  town  authorities. 
There  were  eighty  black  people  in  this  moving. 

In  1829  Cincinnati  decided  to  enforce  the  law, 
and  gave  the  colored  people  sixty  days  in  which  to 
get  their  security  or  leave  the  city.  The  sixty  days 
passed ;  few  of  the  blacks  had  gotten  the  security,  and 
the  authorities  hesitated.  The  citizens  then  became 
exasperated  and  resolved  upon  force.  Mob  rule  then 
held  sway  for  three  days  and  nights,  in  which  many 
were  killed  or  wounded.  The  colored  people  rapidty 
left  the  city  after  this.  Between  one  and  two  thous 
and  went  to  Canada  and  formed  a  settlement.24 

22  Jay,  Miscellaneous  Writings  on  Slavery. 

23  Ohio  State  Journal,  July  16,  1829. 

24  Proceedings  of  Ohio  Anti-Slavery  Convention,  held  at  Put 
nam  in  1835,  19-20.     Also  The  Emporium,  published  at  Cincinnati,. 
July  12,  1829. 


LEGAL  STATUS  33 

The  negroes'  exclusion  from  the  white  school  was 
virtually  complete ;  for  the  white  people  regarded  such 
mingling  of  the  races  with  abhorrence,  as  giving  social 
recognition  to  the  negroes  and  contaminating  the 
white  children.  The  Legislature  in  1829,  fearful  that 
some  locality,  a  New  England  or  a  Quaker  settlement, 
perhaps,  might  so  far  forget  itself  as  to  admit  colored 
children  to  its  schools,  forbade  in  express  terms  all 
admissions  of  blacks  and  mulattoes  into  the  public 
schools.  I  find  but  one  instance  in  which  this  law  was 
broken.  Cleveland,  the  transplanted  Yankee  town  of 
Ohio,  was  given  its  charter  in  1835,  and  in  this  charter 
it  was  stated  that  the  schools  were  to  be  "accessible  to 
all  white  children."  The  Cleveland  authorities  never 
observed  the  word  "white,"  but  admitted  the  colored 
children,  of  whom  there  were  always  comparatively 
few,  on  equal  terms  with  the  whites.25 

The  part  of  the  law  of  1807  which  forbade  colored 
men  to  bear  witness  in  court  against  whites  was  car 
ried  out  to  the  letter,  no  matter  what  the  circumstan 
ces  might  be.  A  white  man  might  rob,  beat  and  kill 
a  negro,  and  unless  some  white  person  were  present 
he  could  escape  all  punishment.  A  case  is  recorded 
where  a  white  man  escaped  conviction  of  murder 
where  there  were  eight  colored  eye-witnesses,  simply 
because  sufficient  testimony  of  white  men  could  not 
be  found.26  In  1846  a  white  man  lost  his  suit  against 
a  black  man  for  the  payment  of  a  note,  for  the  reason 
that  the  only  witness  which  he  could  introduce  in  evi 
dence  was  objected  to  and  excluded  on  account  of  his 
color.  The  judge,  in  pronouncing  his  decision,  said: 
"Let  a  man  be  Christian  or  infidel,  let  him  be  Jew  or 
Turk  or  Mohammedan,  let  him  be  sunk  to  the 
depths  of  degredation,  he  may  be  a  witness  in  court 
if  he  is  not  black ;  the  truth  shall  not  be  received  from 

25  Ohio  School  Report,  1875-76,  32. 

29  Proceedings  of  Ohio  Anti-Slavery  Convention,  held  at   Put 
nam,  1835,  21. 


34  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

a  black  man  when  a  white  man  is  the  party."27  The 
Supreme  Court  made  one  little  exception  to  this,  de 
ciding  that  in  case  of  a  note  for  debt,  a  black  man 
might  swear  to  his  own  signature;  otherwise  any 
white  person  could  forge  his  name  and  the  black  man 
would  be  entirely  at  his  mercy,  since  no  one  could 
swear  to  his  plea  but  himself.28 

I  can  scarcely  imagine  an  exception  to  the  en 
forcement  of  the  laws  against  the  negro  serving  in  the 
militia  or  on  a  jury,  and  certainly  none  appears  to  be 
recorded. 

If  we  look  at  the  question  of  the  enforcement  of 
the  Black  Laws  as  a  whole  therefore,  we  must  con 
clude  that  it  was  severe  enough  to  give  much  concern 
to  the  negroes  and  to  their  friends,  of  whom  we  shall 
hear  more  in  the  next  chapter. 

27  Jordan  vs.  Smith,  Ohio  Reports,  XIV:20i. 

28  Jordan  vs.  Smith,  Ohio  Reports  XIV:  199. 


CHAPTER  III. 

EEPEAL  OF  THE  BLACK  LAWS,  1849. 

Notwithstanding  the  great  prejudice  against 
negroes,  as  revealed  in  the  last  chapter,  there  were 
from  the  very  first  some  ardent  friends  of  the  negro 
cause.  In  the  constitutional  convention  of  1802, 
there  were  those  who  would  have  conferred  the  elect 
oral  privilege  upon  them  and,  in  fact,  some  who  would 
have  made  absolutely  no  distinction  between  the  two 
races. 

From  the  time  of  that  convention  to  about  the 
year  1830  the  negroes  lived  in  comparative  quiet 
throughout  Ohio.  The  newspapers  covering  that 
period  make  scarcely  a  mention  of  them.  Then  sud 
denly  they  appear  in  the  limelight :  they  are  forcibly 
ejected  from  many  towns,  they  are  forbidden  by  law 
to  sit  on  juries  and  also  to  gain  a  legal  residence  in 
the  State,  while  on  the  other  hand  the  Society  of 
Friends  submits  one  of  the  first  memorials  to  the 
Legislature,  asking  for  the  repeal  of  the  Black  Laws. 
This  sudden  agitation  was  undoubtedly  the  result  of 
the  founding  of  abolition  societies  and  the  active 
division  of  the  people  of  the  State  into  friends  and 
foes  of  Southern  policy.1  This  division  was  caused 
not  only  by  the  slavery  question,  but  also  by  the  way 
in  which  the  Southerners  called  upon  the  people  of 
the  State  of  Ohio  for  laws  for  the  return  of  fugitive 
slaves  and,  finally,  by  the  rough  manner  in  which 
they  tried  to  enforce  these  demands.2 

So  from  1830  to  1849  we  find  the  negro  question 
receiving  more  and  more  of  the  attention  of  the  people 
of  the  State  and,  as  the  feeling  of  the  people  became 

1  Journal  and  Register,  March  n,  1839. 
"  Howell's  Story  of  Ohio,  225. 
Caleb  Atwater,  History  of  Ohio,  323. 
Ohio  State  Journal,  Sept.  4,  1839. 


36  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

more  and  more  developed  against  the  South  and 
against  slavery,  we  find  the  free  negroes  of  Ohio  prof 
iting  by  the  reflex  influence  of  this  sympathy  bestowed 
upon  their  enslaved  brothers  and  gaining  in  the  num 
ber  of  friends,  real  or  apparent. 

Friendship  for  the  negroes  naturally  expressed 
itself  in  efforts  to  repeal  the  Black  Laws.  In  the  ses 
sions  of  the  Legislature  of  1829-30  and  1833-34,  mem 
orials  were  submitted,  asking  for  their  repeal.  These 
memorials  were  submitted  for  consideration  to  the 
committee  on  the  judiciary,  which  reported  in  both 
cases  that  it  was  "inexpedient  to  repeal  the  laws  now 
in  force."  In  the  session  of  1836-37,  the  Senate  refused 
to  receive  a  petition  for  the  repeal.  In  1840-41,  the 
subject  of  repeal  again  being  up,  Dr.  John  Watkins, 
for  the  committee  on  public  institutions,  filed  a  long 
and  carefully  prepared  report,  the  conclusion  being 
that  it  "would  be  highly  impolitic  to  repeal  or  modify 
the  existing  laws."  The  next  year  numerous  petitions 
on  the  same  subject  were  presented,  and  on  the  other 
hand  petitions  aiming  to  prevent  the  immigration  of 
negroes  into  the  State.  In  the  session  of  1843-44 
there  were,  in  answer  to  petitions,  two  committee 
reports  unfavorable  to  a  repeal.  In  1844-45  also  the 
committees  were  against  it.  In  1846-47  the  majority 
of  the  committee  reported  adversely,  while  Mr.  Kus- 
sell,  of  Portage  county,  made  a  minority  report  in 
favor  of  the  repeal.  In  the  next  session,  1847-48,  there 
was  taken  exactly  the  same  action,  except  that  Mr. 
Byers  of  Wayne  county  made  the  minority  report.3 

Finally,  on  February  10,  1849,  what  was  popu 
larly  known  as  "the  repeal  of  the  Black  Laws,"  was 
accomplished,  when  an  act  was  passed  repealing  the 
laws  of  1804  and  1807  regulating  black  and  mulatto 
persons;  "and  all  parts  of  other  acts,  so  far  as  they 
enforce  any  special  disabilities  or  confer  any  special 
privileges  on  account  of  color,  are  hereby  repealed, 

3  House  and  Senate  Journals  for  the  years  mentioned. 


REPEAL  OF  THE  BLACK  LAWS 


37 


except  the  act  of  the  9th  of  February,  1831,  relating 
to  juries,  and  the  act  of  the  14th  of  March,  1831,  for 
the  relief  of  the  poor."4  While  this  is  generally  spoken 
of  and  thought  of  as  the  act  repealing  the  Black 
Laws,  it  is  really  an  act  modifying  them. 

As  a  result  of  this  law,  negroes  were  no  longer 
forbidden  to  enter  the  State,  they  could  now  give 
testimony  in  court  against  white  people,  and  they  were 
now  provided  with  school  privileges,  though  in  sepa 
rate  school  houses.  They  could  not  sit  on  juries,  gain 
a  legal  residence  in  the  State,  go  to  the  schools  for 
whites,  and  of  course,  by  the  operation  of  the  consti 
tution,  they  could  not  exercise  the  voting  privilege. 

Let  us  now  look  at  some  further  reasons  for  the 
repeal  of  these  laws  and  see  just  how  it  was  accom 
plished.  The  Black  Laws  of  Ohio  were  notorious 
throughout  the  country.  It  Avas  often  said  that  the 
slave  States  themselves  treated  their  free  colored 
population  with  scarcely  more  oppression  than  did  the 
free  State  of  Ohio.  During  the  presidential  campaign 
of  1848,  William  H.  Seward,  in  a  speech  at  Cleveland, 
referred  to  the  Black  Laws  as  follows : 

"Reform  your  code, — extend  a  cordial  welcome  to 
the  fugitive  who  lays  his  weary  limbs  at  your  door, 
and  defend  him  as  you  would  your  paternal  gods; 
correct  your  own  error  that  slavery  has  any  consti 
tutional  guaranty  which  may  not  be  released  and 
ought  not  to  be  relinquished.  Say  to  slavery,  when  it 
shows  its  bond  and  demands  the  pound  of  flesh,  that 
if  it  draws  one  drop  of  blood  its  life  shall  pay  the 
forfeit."5 

This  mixing  in  of  the  free  negro  of  Ohio  with  the 
anti-slavery  feeling  and  this  call  to  the  more  con 
siderate  and  humane  people  of  the  State  that  they 
wipe  off  from  their  statute  books  such  laws  as  were 
in  some  measure  bringing  upon  the  negro  the  very 

4  Laws  of  Ohio,  XLVII,  18. 

5  Speech  at  Cleveland,  October  26,  1848,  Seward's  Works,  III  1301 


38  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

hardships  that  they  were  blaming  the  people  of  the 
South  for,  bore  fruit  and  engaged  the  attention  of 
political  parties. 

The  Free-soil  party,  made  up  mostly  of  Whigs 
with  pronounced  anti-slavery  opinions,  in  the  fall  of 
1848  incorporated  the  following  clause  in  their  State 
platform:  "Resolved,  That  while  we  desire  a  hom 
ogeneous  population  for  our  State,  and  believe  that  we 
shall  have  it  whenever  slavery  shall  cease  to  force  the 
victims  of  its  tyranny  upon  the  uncongenial  North, 
we  are  inflexibly  opposed  to  all  class  legislation  and 
legalized  injustice  and  therefore  insist  upon  the  repeal 
of  the  enactments  commonly  known  as  the  Black 
Laws  of  Ohio."6  The  Whig  party  had  always  been 
regarded  as  being  more  friendly  to  the  blacks  than  the 
Democratic  party,  but  in  1848,  the  Whigs  nominated 
and  elected  a  Southern  slave-holder  for  President  of 
the  United  States.  The  Whig  party  of  Ohio  could  not 
now  take  a  stand  for  the  repeal  of  the  Black  Laws,  and 
the  result  was  that  many  left  its  ranks  and  joined  the 
Free-soil  party.  This  party  now  assumed  some  im 
portance,  as  it  held  the  balance  of  power  and  was  in  a 
position  to  compel  concessions  from  either  the  Whigs 
or  the  Democrats. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1849,  there 
were  Free-soilers,  "Old  Line  Whigs,"  as  they  were 
called,  who  "were  for  party,  right  or  wrong,"  and 
Democrats.  If  the  regular  "Old  Line  Whigs"  and  the 
Whig-Free  -soilers  combined,  they  could  about  tie  the 
vote  of  the  Democrats.  Besides  these  elements,  there 
were  in  the  House  two  Independents,  as  they  called 
themselves,  Messrs.  Morse  of  Lake  county  and  Town- 
send  of  Lorain.  These  two  had  generally  affiliated 
themselves  with  the  Free-soilers,  but,  because  of  their 
refusal  to  bind  themselves  to  support  all  legislation 
proposed  by  the  Free-soilers,  they  had  been  read  out 
of  the  party.  As  a  result,  the  balance  of  power  was 

G  Ohio  Statesman,  December  30,  1848. 


REPEAL  OF  THE  BLACK  LAWS  39 

substantially  thrown  into  the  hands  of  these  two  men. 
They  saw  their  advantage  and  decided  to  give  their 
support  to  that  party  which  would  champion  their 
measure.  Being  ardent  sympathizers  with  the  free 
colored  people  of  Ohio,  they  set  themselves  the  one 
task  of  accomplishing  the  repeal  of  the  Black  Laws. 
The  circumstances  were  favorable  in  the  extreme  for 
accomplishing  tjiis  task.  They  secured  the  repeal  as 
the  outcome  of  a  political  bargain  with  the  Democratic 
and  Free-soil  parties- 
It  was  the  year  for  Ohio  to  elect  a  United  States 
Senator  and  also  a  judge  for  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  State.  Over  these  two  offices  the  parties  fought. 
The  Free-soil  candidate  for  Senator  was  Joshua  R. 
Giddings,  who  was  a  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Morse, 
and  was  warmly  supported  by  him,  while  Mr.  Towns- 
end  as  earnestly  favored  Salmon  P.  Chase;  but  both 
were  more  anxious  for  the  repeal  of  the  Black  Laws 
than  for  the  election  of  any  particular  favorite  of  their 
own.  It  was  agreed  that  Morse  should  propose  to  the 
Whigs  that  if  they  would  vote  for  the  Repeal  Bill  and 
for  the  election  of  Joshua  R.  Giddings  as  Senator, 
these  two  Independents  (Morse  and  Townsend)  would 
give  their  votes  to  the  Whig  candidate  for  the  Su 
preme  Court.  But  the  Whigs  thought  that  to  accept 
Giddings,  with  his  Free-soil  notions,  was  too  great  a 
price  to  pay  and  rejected  the  proposal.  A  similar 
proposal  was  made  by  Townsend  to  the  Democrats, 
with  merely  the  substitution  of  Chase  for  Gid 
dings.  And,  with  the  conviction  that  the  "Old  Line 
Democrats"  would  come  up  to  the  standard  of  the 
Independents,  Chase  had  acted  with  them.  For  this 
reason  the  proposal  of  Townsend  was  not  altogether 
disagreeable  to  the  Democratic  members  of  the  House, 
and  the  agreement  was  made.  A  bill  was  at  once 
drawn  up  by  Chase  to  repeal  the  Black  Laws  and  to 
provide  for  the  education  of  colored  children.  The 
bill  was  introduced  into  the  House  by  Mr.  Morse  and 


40  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

carried  by  a  large  majority.  In  the  Senate  the  bill  was 
referred  to  a  committee,  which  reported  an  amendment 
exempting  from  repeal  the  laws  prohibiting  colored 
people  from  a  place  on  the  jury  and  from  admittance 
to  poor  houses  and  other  State  charity  institutions.7 
The  committee's  recommendations  were  accepted  and 
were  finally  incorporated  in  the  bill,  which  passed 
February  10,  1849.  The  vote  in  the  House  stood  53 
to  12  and  in  the  Senate  23  to  II.8  A  Democrat  and  a 
Whig  tried  by  hiding  to  dodge  the  vote  but  were 
dragged  into  the  Assembly  Chamber  by  the  sergeant- 
at-arms.9 

To  summarize  the  repeal  of  the  Black  Laws 
briefly,  we  may  say  that  two  men  accomplished  the 
act.  They  were  helped  out  by  thirteen  Free-soilers 
who,  with  them,  really  wanted  repeal,  and  these  fif 
teen  men  were  assisted  by  the  Democratic  party,  which 
by  principle  had  been,  was  at  that  time,  and  after 
ward  continued  opposed  to  all  attempts  tending 
toward  the  equality  of  the  white  and  black  races. 
This  standing  principle,  however,  fell  before  the  bribe 
of  a  United  States  Senator,  a  State  Supreme  Court 
judge,  and  "some  other  considerations,"  as  the  news 
papers  expressed  it. 

7  When  the   committee  reported  to  the   Senate,   Mr.    Scott  of 
Defiance  County  moved  to  recommit  the  bill  to  the  standing  com 
mittee  on  the  judiciary  with  the  instruction  "to  so  amend  the  bill 
that  all  colored  persons  be  prohibited  from  holding  real  estate  with 
in  the  State  of  Ohio."     (Senate  Journal,  January  24,  1849.)     This 
motion  was  lost  by  but  three  votes,  there  being  16  yeas  and  19  nays. 

8  Senate  Journal,  Feb.  5,  1849. 
House  Journal,  Jan.  30,  1849. 

Ohio  Archaeological  and  Historical  Society's  publications,  I, 
117-120. 

Magazine  of  Western  History,  VI,  341,  623. 

Schuckers'  Chase,  95  Seq. 

Ohio  State  Journal,  Feb.  24,  March  17,  1849. 

Ohio  Statesman,  Feb.  26,  March  5,  1849. 

(The  last  two  sources  mentioned  were  the  chief  organs  of  the 
Whig  and  Democratic  parties  respectively.) 

9  Cincinnati  Globe,  Feb.  7,  1849.     Quoted  by  T.  C.  Smith,  The 
Liberty  and  Free  Soil  Parties,  169. 


REPEAL  OF  THE  BLACK  LAWS         41 

Having  seen  the  manner  in  which  these  laws  were 
repealed,  it  will  be  interesting  to  know  how  the  people 
of  the  State  felt  about  the  action  of  their  representa 
tives. 

The  Ohio  State  Journal,  the  leading  Whig  paper, 
in  an  editorial,  February  24,  1849,  said : 

"The  announcement  that  the  Black  Laws  are 
repealed  is  received  in  different  quarters  with  alter 
nate  paeans  and  execrations;  and  we  suppose  it  is 
lawful  for  us  'to  rejoice  with  those  who  do  rejoice/ 
though  our  sympathies  do  not  enable  us  to  enter  very 
profoundly  into  the  sorrows  of  those  who  mourn  over 
an  event  which  we  regard  as  of  so  little  intrinsic  im 
portance.  Our  sense  of  gratification  at  the  repeal  of 
the  Black  Laws  does  not  result  from  any  conviction 
that  some  great  end  in  ethics  or  politics  has  thereby 
been  attained;  we  rejoice  at  the  result  because  it  is  a 
consummation  long  and  diligently  sought  by  a  large 
body  of  our  fellow  citizens,  under  the  firm  conviction, 
honestly  entertained,  that  these  laws  were  very  op 
pressive  in  their  operation  upon  our  colored  popula 
tion.  It  was  doubtless  thought  by  many  that  the 
repeal  of  these  laws  would  greatly  meliorate  the  con 
dition  of  the  colored  race  in  Ohio.  We  think  differ 
ently  and  are  of  the  opinion  that  it  would  puzzle  the 
most  intelligent  of  the  colored  race  within  our  bord 
ers,  or  the  most  ardent  of  their  champions  to  point  out 
the  practical  advantages  which  are  to  result  to  them 
from  the  repeal  of  these  laws.  It  is  but  a  fancied 
gain. 

"No  act  of  legislation  in  this  State  for  thirty 
years  past  has  probably  been  received  at  different 
points  with  such  diverse  greetings  as  this  act.  Much 
of  this  feeling  is  the  result  of  morbid  sympathy  on 
the  one  hand  and  prejudice  on  the  other.  The  Western 
Eeserve  district  is  happy,  but  they  have  few  subjects 
to  be  affected  by  the  act.  The  colored  population 
reside  from  choice  in  other  localities  and  among  a 


42  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

people  with  whose  habits  and  prejudices  they  are 
familiar.  These  very  distinctions  are  part  and  parcel 
of  the  very  nature  of  both  races,  and  can  never  be 
eradicated  by  statute  law.  In  the  localities  of  the 
southern  part  of  the  State  where  the  colored  popula 
tion  most  abounds  they  will  practically  keep  in  force 
some  of  the  laws  that  have  been  repealed  by  this  act, 
especially  the  one  denying  them  the  right  to  bear 
witness  against  a  white.  Public  opinion  and  the  fact 
that  men  will  be  influenced  in  their  litigation  by  a 
regard  for  their  interests  will  be  the  power.  For  it  is 
a  fact  notorious  to  all  who  are  willing  to  see  that 
nothing  could  (as  a  general  rule)  be  more  fatal  to  the 
merits  of  a  case  than  an  effort  to  sustain  it  by  this 
description  of  testimony.  This  may  be  called  preju 
dice.  Be  it  so.  It  is  none  the  less  potent  for  being  so 
denominated,  or  for  being  so  in  fact.  It  is  the  preju 
dice  of  education — ingrain  in  the  very  constitution  of 
society,  and  cannot  be  eradicated  by  mere  parliamen 
tary  forms  and  enactments."10 

The  Ohio  Statesman,  the  leading  Democratic 
organ,  copying  from  The  Clark  County  Democrat,  in 
its  issue  of  March  5,  1849,  says:  "We  regret  that  a 
disposition  exists  on  the  part  of  our  Democratic 
friends  in  some  parts  of  the  State  to  make  a  fuss  about 
the  repeal  of  the  so-called  Black  Laws  of  Ohio.  We 
are  as  fully  aware  as  they  possibly  can  be  that  it  is  an 
unpopular  movement,  and  that  the  action  of  the 
Democrats  on  this  question  was  wholly  unexpected. 
*  *  *  The  Democratic  party  has  always  stood  opposed 
to  placing  the  black  man  upon  an  equality  with  the 
white.  *  *  *  We  are  decidedly  opposed  to  repeal  at 
this  time."11 

At  Sugar  Grove,  in  Fairfield  county  near  Lan 
caster,  a  great  indignation  meeting  was  held  on 
February  15  and  resolutions  were  adopted,  scoring 

10  Ohio  State  Journal,  Feb.  24,  1849. 

11  Ohio  Stateman,  March  5,  1849. 


REPEAL  OF  THE  BLACK  LAWS         43 

the  members  of  the  Legislature.  The  editor  of  the 
Ohio  Eagle,  published  in  Lancaster,  gave  it  as  his 
opinion  that  the  resolutions  expressed  the  sentiments 
of  two-thirds  of  the  people  of  the  county.  Two  of  the 
resolutions  are  typical  of  the  whole : 

"Kesolved,  That  the  majority  of  the  members  of 
the  Ohio  Legislature  have  betrayed  the  confidence 
reposed  in  them  by  their  constituents  and  have  proven 
that  they  are  a  set  of  base  hypocrites  and  dishonest 
politicians. 

"Kesolved,  That  we  are  opposed  to  free-soilism, 
abolitionism,  demagogism  and  negroism."12 

The  repeal  of  the  Black  Laws,  then,  was  in  no 
way  a  sign  that  race  prejudice  was  dying  away.  Of 
course  it  was  a  great  consummation  to  those  who  had 
petitioned  for  it  and  longed  for  it  during  the  previous 
years;  but  these  were  few  in  number  in  comparison 
with  the  great  number  of  those  throughout  the  State 
who  would  not  turn  over  their  hand  to  aid  their  black 
neighbors.  The  repeal  was  far  from  popular  and  far 
from  indicating  the  sentiment  of  the  State,  and  yet 
the  laws  were  never  re-enacted.  It  might  be  argued 
that  this  last  fact  proves  that  the  repeal  was  in  accord 
with  the  wishes  of  the  people.  But  we  must  remember 
that  (1)  The  enemies  of  the  negroes  were  unorganiz 
ed,  while  their  friends  were  organized  in  the  active 
Anti-slavery  Society,  (2)  Just  at  this  time  and  for  the 
next  few  years  there  were  many  important  national 
issues  in  which  the  negro  question  figured  more  or 
less,  which  overshadowed  this  issue  at  home.  These 
two  things,  in  my  opinion,  kept  the  people  of  Ohio 
from  repudiating  the  bargain  and  sale  of  the  politi 
cians,  whereby  the  Black  Laws  were  repealed. 

12  The  Ohio  Statesman,  Feb.  22,  1849. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SOCIAL  POSITION  OF  NEGRO,  1802-1849. 

In  this  chapter  we  shall  study  the  social  position 
of  the  negroes  in  Ohio  during  the  first  half  of  the  last 
century,  or  more  truly,  possibly,  we  shall  study  their 
lack  of  social  position.  We  shall  find  that  in  the 
minds  of  white  men  generally  negroes  were  creatures, 
not  citizens,  scarcely  persons  even,  if  we  rightly  in 
terpret  the  laws  made  by  the  State  Legislature  in  di 
rect  contradiction  to  the  constitution,  which  secured 
certain  rights  to  all  persons,  with  no  distinction  what 
soever.1  Negroes  were  just  enough  like  men  to  satisfy 
the  persons  of  the  State  of  Ohio  that  they  should  not 
be  sold  upon  the  auction  block  like  other  creatures  of 
flesh  and  blood,  as  the  horse  and  the  ox. 

As  many  of  the  people  of  the  State  said  at  that 
time,  the  negroes  were  "an  excresence  on  the  body 
politic  and  the  body  social."  They  were  creatures  not 
welcomed  into  the  State  in  any  capacity.  With  the 
exception  of  about  three  hundred  of  their  number, 
their  descendants  and  a  very  few  others,  they  had 
come  into  the  State  against  her  laws  and  were  re 
garded  as  intruders,  uninvited  and  unwelcome. 

William  Jay,  an  abolitionist  lawyer  of  New  York 
State  and  son  of  John  Jay,  the  statesman  and  jurist, 
writing  during  the  period  which  we  are  now  reviewing 
and  giving  the  status  of  the  free  negroes  in  the  differ 
ent  States  of  the  Union,  said,"The  laws  of  Ohio  against 
the  free  blacks  are  peculiarly  detestable.  Not  only 
are  the  blacks  excluded  in  that  State  from  the  benefit 
of  public  schools,  but  with  a  refinement  of  cruelty 
unparalleled,  they  are  doomed  to  idleness  and  poverty 
by  a  law  which  renders  a  white  man  who  employs  a 
colored  one  to  labor  for  him  one  hour  liable  for  his 

1  Constitution  of  Ohio,  1802,  Art.  VIII,  Sec.  I,  7,  19,  25. 


EARLY  SOCIAL  STATUS  45 

support  through  life."2  "Prejudice  against  the  negro 
attains  its  rankest  luxurience  not  in  the  rice-swamps 
of  Georgia,  nor  the  sugar  fields  of  Louisiana,  but  upon 
the  prairies  of  Ohio."3  "Some  remaining  regard  to 
decency  and  the  opinion  of  the  world  has  restrained 
the  Legislatures  of  the  free  States,  with  one  exception, 
from  consigning  these  unhappy  people  to  ignorance. 
The  exception  must  of  course  be  Ohio."4  These  extracts 
are  interesting,  as  giving  the  views  of  a  person  out 
side  the  State  looking  on  at  the  time  that  the  condi 
tions  were  in  actual  existence,  and  giving  a  compara 
tive  view  of  the  situation  in  the  different  States. 

The  laws  against  the  free  negroes  that  we  have 
already  considered5  served  as  a  frame-work  upon 
which  this  prejudice  was  built  or  at  least  upon  which 
it  was  clearly  manifested.  To  a  large  extent  their 
social  status  and  legal  status  converged,  each  affect 
ing  deeply  the  other.  Let  us  now  consider  some  of  the 
manifestations  of  this  feeling  against  the  negro. 

The  laws  of  Ohio,  up  to  1848,  failed  absolutely  to 
provide  any  schooling  for  the  colored  children,  and 
the  white  people  of  the  State  failed  almost  as  abso 
lutely  in  the  same  direction.  Here  and  there,  very 
rarely,  the  negro  child  was  helped  to  a  few  weeks' 
schooling  in  the  course  of  a  year.  Sometimes  this 
help  was  given  by  a  few  white  friends  who  braved 
public  ill-will  thereby.  More  often  it  was  the  work  of 
a  few  zealous  negroes  who  raised  enough  money  in 
some  way  to  provide  the  schooling.  In  Cleveland,  in 
the  Puritan  Western  Reserve,  I  find  the  only  instance 
where  negro  children  were  permitted  to  enter  the 
public  school  beside  white  children  without  protest.6 
Clark  Waggoner,  in  his  History  of  the  City  of  Toledo 
and  Lucas  County,  says : 

2  Jay,  Miscellaneous  Writings  on  Slavery,  27. 

3  Jay,  Miscellaneous  Writings  on  Slavery,  373. 

4  Jay,  Miscellaneous  Writings  on  Slavery,  385. 

5  Chapter  n. 

6  School  Report,  1875-76,  p.  32. 


46  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

"At  one  time  in  the  early  history  of  the  Toledo 
School  System,  the  two  races  were  associated  in  the 
schools.  This,  however,  was  but  a  condition  of  suf 
ferance.  All  the  time,  the  laws  of  the  State  maintained 
the  right  of  any  parent  or  guardian  of  a  white  scholar, 
by  protest,  to  drive  every  colored  child  from  the 
schools  and  into  the  streets ;  and  it  was  not  long  before 
such  power  was  exercised,  and  the  proscribed  left 
without  school  privileges  of  any  sort.  After  a  long 
time  the  Board  of  Education  established  a  school  for 
the  blacks  in  an  old  frame  building,  illy  lighted,  and 
poorly  supplied  with  facilities,  and  in  strong  contrast 
with  the  superb  provision  made  for  the  whites.  The 
location  was  not  central,  and  many  colored  children 
were  by  distance  denied  access  to  the  school,  even  had 
the  accommodations  been  sufficient  for  them.  As  late 
as  1867,  with  200  to  300  colored  children  of  school 
age  in  the  city,  not  one  in  five  was  in  this  school."7 
Toledo,  be  it  noted,  was  the  most  northern  city  of 
Ohio. 

The  inclination  and  ability  of  the  colored  people 
in  raising  funds  for  school  purposes  is  pictured  clear 
ly  by  Alfred  E.  Lee,  in  his  History  of  Columbus,  Ohio : 
"Prior  to  1836  the  colored  people  maintained  a  school 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  city.  In  that  year  they 
organized  a  School  Society  with  three  trustees.  In 
the  fall  of  1839  (three  years  later),  they  had  sixty 
dollars  in  their  treasury,  and  a  subscribed  building 
fund  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars."8  One 
can  easily  imagine  from  this  the  quantity  and  quality 
of  schooling  for  the  negroes  of  Columbus. 

In  Cincinnati,  where  about  one-third  of  the 
negroes  of  Ohio  made  their  home  during  the  first  half 
of  the  last  century,  we  see  still  another  picture  of 
negro  schooling.  Here  we  find  little  mission  schools 

1  Clark  Waggoner,  History  of  the  City  of  Toledo  and  Lucas 
County,  628. 

8  Alfred  E.  Lee,  History  of  the  City  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  I,  516. 


EARLY  SOCIAL  STATUS  47 

being  established  in  1834  by  some  of  the  students  of 
Lane  Theological  Seminary,  supported  by  a  few  women 
philanthropists.  These  students  were  severely  cen 
sured  by  citizens  and  by  a  large  number  of  the  faculty 
and  officers  of  the  institution.  Finally  they  were 
directly  forbidden  by  the  school  authorities  to  con 
tinue  in  the  work  and,  as  a  result,  fifty-one  students 
withdrew  and  went  to  Oberlin  College  in  the  Western 
Keserve  district.  They  took  along  with  them  an  es 
pecially  bright  negro  boy  and  desired  his  admission 
also  to  the  school.  This  school,  though  well  known 
for  its  anti-slavery  feeling  and  teaching,  had  not  as 
yet  opened  its  doors  to  negro  students.  A  great  dis 
cussion  was  now  precipitated  and  was  taken  up  by  the 
newspapers  of  the  whole  State.  In  February,  1835, 
the  trustees  passed  a  resolution,  carried  only  by  the 
casting  vote  of  the  presiding  officer,  to  open  the  doors 
of  the  institution  to  all  students  irrespective  of  color.9 
For  this  and  other  acts  sympathetic  toward  the  negro, 
such  a  feeling  was  aroused  throughout  the  State  that 
a  legislative  investigation  was  conducted  in  the  session 
of  1839-40  into  the  doings  of  the  Oberlin  Collegiate 
Institute,  as  it  was  then  called.  10  While  Oberlin  was 
the  only  college  in  Ohio  for  many  years  that  declared 
itself  open  to  negroes,  this  concession  amounted  to 
little  or  nothing  for  the  colored  people,  as  it  was 
virtually  impossible  for  any  of  them  to  get  sufficient 
preparation  for  the  college  work  even  if  they  had  the 
ambition. 

In  the  large  cities,  such  as  we  have  thus  far  con 
sidered,  we  should  naturally  expect  to  find  a  few 
people  who  felt  it  their  duty  to  help  the  negroes  to  a 
little  education ;  but,  if  we  look  at  the  State  broadly 
and  as  a  whole,  we  shall  find  conditions  even  worse 
than  those  already  pictured.  According  to  a  pamph 
let  entitled  A  Report  on  the  Condition  of  Colored 

9J.  H.  Fairchild,  Oberlin.    Its  Origin,  Progress,  and  Results. 
"Senate  and  House  Journals,  1839-40. 


48  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

People  m  Ohio,  read  by  A.  D.  Barber  as  an  address 
before  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  at  Massillon,  Ohio, 
1840,  many  places  throughout  the  State  absolutely 
forbade  schools  for  colored  children  to  be  established, 
even  though  supported  by  the  negroes  themselves,  and 
in  some  places  their  school  houses  were  burned  to  the 
ground ;  in  Jefferson,  Scioto  county,  there  were  almost 
one  hundred  negro  farmers,  and  yet  they  could  not 
establish  a  negro  school,  OAving  to  opposition  which 
grew  so  bitter  that  it  was  considered  bad  policy  for  a 
white  man  to  employ  a  negro  or  even  converse  with 
him;  teaching  a  "nigger  school"  was  considered  con 
temptible  business,  and  any  white  man  lowering  him 
self  to  such  a  degree  was  completely  ostracized  by  his 
white  neighbors.11 

Prejudice  of  race  was  undoubtedly  the  strongest 
reason  for  this  exclusion  of  blacks  from  the  public 
schools;  but  the  following,  from  an  editorial  in  the 
Ohio  State  Journal  of  December  22,  1827,  is  interest-  \ 
ing: 

"If    we    enlighten    their    minds    by    education, 
what  a  new  world  of  misery  do  we  open  to  their  view. 
Knowledge  would  open  their  eyes  to  their  present 
degraded  state — their    incapacity    of    enjoying    the 
rights  of  citizenship,  or  of  being  received  into  the 
social  interests  of  the  whites  as  friends.    They  would 
be  rendered  uneasy  with  their  condition,  and,  seeing 
no  hopes  of  improvement,  would  harbor  designs  un-     / 
friendly  to  the  peace  and  permanency  of  our  institu-  / 
tions."12  J 

Not  only  were  they  kept  in  darkness  as  regards , 
knowledge,  but  in  addition  they  were  restricted  in 
opportunity  as  regards  religious  and  moral  instruc 
tion  and  stimulus.    They  did  not  have  money  to  erect 
churches  and  provide  ministers  for  themselves,  and 

11 A  Report  on  the  Condition  of  Colored  People  in  Ohio,  1840. — 
A.  D.  Barber. 

12  Ohio  State  Journal,  Dec.  22,  1827. 


EARLY  SOCIAL  STATUS  49 

yet  they  were  not  wanted  in  the  white  churches.  If 
they  presumed  so  much,  they  were  either  directly 
refused  admission  or  made  decidedly  uncomfortable 
by  being  placed  in  special  and  undesirable  places.  In 
1849  the  colored  people  in  convention  in  Columbus 
publicly  protested  against  the  "negro  pew."13  Wil 
liam  Jay,  writing  in  1835,  says : 

"Colored  ministers  are  occasionally  ordained  in 
the  different  denominations,  but  they  are  kept  at  a 
distance  by  their  white  brethren  in  the  ministry,  and 
are  very  rarely  permitted  to  enter  their  pulpits;  and 
still  more  rarely  to  sit  at  their  tables.  The  distinction 
of  caste  is  not  forgotten  even  in  the  celebration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  seldom  are  colored  disciples  per 
mitted  to  eat  and  drink  of  the  memorials  of  the  Re 
deemer's  passion  till  after  every  white  communicant 
has  been  served."14 

Being  thus  restricted  in  the  enjoyment  of  mental 
and  moral  blessings  and  all  influences  that  might  gen 
erate  ambition  and  self-respect  in  them,  it  would  be 
strange  indeed  to  find  many  of  them  objecting  to  their 
condition  and  crying  out  for  social  equality.  They 
seem  to  have  been  almost  more  than  content  to  pick 
up  the  crumbs  that  fell  from  the  white  man's  table, 
judging  from  the  way  in  which  they  continued  to  come 
into  the  State,  and  to  remain  quiet  and  submissive 
to  their  superiors.  I  have  been  unable  to  find  a  single 
instance  in  which  the  colored  people  made  anything 
approaching  a  forcible  protest  against  the  discrimin 
ation  that  was  constantly  made  against  them.  There 
was  no  resentful  spirit  shown  then,  as  there  is  today, 
no  determination  on  the  negro's  part  to  have  "all  his 
rights."15 

13  Minutes  of  the  Convention  of  Colored  People  of  Ohio ;  Con 
vened  at  Columbus,  Jan.  13-15,  1849. 

"Jay,  Miscellaneous  Writings  on  Slavery,  387. 

15  Such  is  the  attitude  of  many  negroes  who  have  ibeen  coming 
North  in  recent  years.  This,  in  my  opinion,  accounts  for  the  fact 
that  there  is  so  much  more  mob  violence  at  the  present  day  than  in 
the  period  now  under  survey. 


50  THE  COU)R  LINE  IN  OHIO 

As  facts  and  conditions  presented  later  will  show, 
the  negroes  did  not  presume  to  attend  the  white  men's 
theatres  or  entertainments  or  go  to  the  white  men's 
hotels.  They  did  not  ride  in  the  stage  coaches  on  equal 
footing  with  the  white  passengers.  On  the  steamboats 
they  rode  on  deck  and  not  in  the  cabins  with  the 
whites.  They  did  not  go  to  white  men's  homes  for 
anything  but  to  do  their  work.  Their  children  did 
not  play  with  the  white  children.  In  fact  there  was 
scarcely  anything  whatever  in  the  way  of  communion 
between  the  whites  and  the  blacks.  They  did  not  even 
work  together  in  the  lowest  grades  of  labor.  They 
were  two  peoples  separate  in  practically  all  things. 
The  negroes  lived  truly  unto  themselves,  both  as  re 
gards  their  place  of  dwelling  in  the  city  and  as  regards 
the  relation  of  man  to  man. 

In  the  negroes'  dependence  upon  the  white  people 
for  the  greater  portion  of  their  daily  bread  do  we  find 
the  chief  connecting  tie  between  the  two  races.  Of 
course  some  few — and  they  were  very  few — were  small 
farmers  and  in  a  way  independent,  but  far  the  greater 
number  of  them  got  what  little  money  they  needed  by 
doing  the  lowest  of  menial  work  for  the  whites.  It 
was  out  of  the  question  for  a  negro  to  get  a  position  as 
bookkeeper,  clerk,  or  accountant  of  any  kind,  to  enter 
a  skilled  trade,  or  in  fact  to  do  anything  that  would 
throw  him  in  contact  with  the  white  race  in  a  way  the 
least  suggestive  of  equality. 

In  1834  the  Anti-slavery  Society  of  Lane  Sem 
inary,  near  Cincinnati,  had  a  committee  investigate 
the  condition  of  the  free  colored  people  in  Cincinnati, 
and  the  following  is  a  part  of  their  report : 

"The  wrongs  suffered  by  those  who  remained  be 
hind  in  1829,  when  so  many  of  their  people  were  forc 
ibly  driven  out  of  Cincinnati,  cannot  well  be  imagined. 
The  mechanical  associations  combined  against  them, 
and  prejudice  excluded  them  entirely  from  school 
privileges. 


EARLY  SOCIAL  STATUS  51 

"A  respectable  master  mechanic  stated  to  us,  a 
few  days  since,  that  in  1830  the  President  of  the 
Mechanical  Association  was  publicly  tried  by  the 
Society  for  the  crime  of  assisting  a  colored  young  man 
to  learn  a  trade.  Such  was  the  feeling  among  the 
mechanics  that  no  colored  boy  could  learn  a  trade,  or 
colored  journeyman  find  employment.  A  young  man 
of  exceptional  character  and  an  excellent  workman 
purchased  his  freedom  and  learned  the  cabinet  making 
business  in  Kentucky.  On  coming  to  this  city,  he  was 
refused  work  by  every  man  to  whom  he  applied.  At 
last  he  found  a  shop  carried  on  by  an  Englishman, 
who  agreed  to  employ  him — but  on  entering  the  shop, 
the  workmen  threw  down  their  tools  and  declared  that 
he  should  leave  or  they  would.  'They  would  never 
work  with  a  nigger.'  The  unfortunate  youth  was  ac 
cordingly  dismissed. 

"In  this  extremity,  having  spent  his  last  cent,  he 
found  a  slave  holder  who  gave  him  employment  in  an 
iron  store  as  a  common  laborer.  Here  he  remained 
two  years,  when  the  gentleman,  finding  he  was  a  me 
chanic,  exerted  his  influence  and  procured  work  for 
him  as  a  rough  carpenter.  This  man,  by  dint  of  per 
severance  and  industry,  has  now  become  a  master 
workman,  employing  at  times  six  or  eight  journey 
men.  But,  he  tells  us,  he  has  not  yet  received  a  single 
job  of  work  from  a  native  born  citizen  of  a  free  State. 

"This  oppression  of  the  mechanics  still  continues. 
One  of  the  boys  of  our  school  last  summer  sought  in 
vain  for  a  place  in  this  city  to  learn  a  trade.  In  hopes 
of  better  success,  his  brother  went  with  him  to  New 
Orleans,  where  he  readily  found  a  situation.  Of  mul 
titudes  of  common  laborers  at  the  time  alluded  to 
above,  who  were  immediately  turned  out  of  employ 
ment,  many  have  told  us  that  they  were  compelled  to 
resort  to  dishonorable  occupations  or  starve.  One 
fact — a  clergyman  told  one  of  his  laborers,  who  was 


52  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

also  a  member  of  his  church,  that  he  could  employ  him 
no  longer,  for  the  laws  forbade  it.  The  poor  man  went 
out  and  sought  employment  elsewhere  to  keep  his 
family  from  starving,  but  he  sought  in  vain  and  re 
turned  in  despair  to  the  minister  to  ask  his  advice. 
The  only  reply  he  received  was,  'I  cannot  help  you; 
you  must  go  to  Liberia.' 

"The  combined  oppression  of  public  sentiment 
and  law  reduced  the  colored  people  to  extreme  misery. 
No  colored  man  could  be  a  drayman  or  porter  without 
subjecting  his  employer  to  a  heavy  penalty,  and  few 
employers  had  the  courage  to  risk  its  infliction.  Many 
families,  as  we  know,  have  for  years  been  supported 
by  the  mothers  or  female  part  of  the  family.  This  they 
have  done  by  going  out  at  washing,  or  performing 
other  drudgery  which  no  one  else  could  be  procured 
to  do."16 

To  assist  in  appreciating  the  gulf  that  lay  be 
tween  the  stations  of  the  two  races,  as  viewed  by  the 
white  people  of  the  time,  the  following  incident  will 
be  helpful :  In  1839  a  petition  for  relief  from  certain 
legal  disabilities  was  presented  to  the  Legislature 
from  some  colored  inhabitants  of  the  State.  It  was 
moved  to  reject  the  reception  of  the  petition,  calling 
it  "an  intruder  into  the  House."  The  motion  to  reject 
the  petition  was  lost  by  but  four  votes.  The  following 
day  the  House  by  a  large  majority  decided  "That  the 
blacks  and  mulattoes,  who  may  be  residents  within 
this  State,  have  no  constitutional  right  to  present  their 
petitions  to  the  General  Assembly  for  any  purpose 
whatsoever,  and  that  any  reception  of  such  petitions 
on  the  part  of  the  General  Assembly  is  a  mere  act  of 
privilege  or  policy  and  not  imposed  by  any  expressed 
or  implied  power  of  the  constitution."17 

16  Proceedings  of  Ohio  Anti-Slavery  Convention,  1835,  19. 
"Journal  of  House  of  Representatives,  1839,  Jan.  13,  14. 


EARLY  SOCIAL  STATUS  53 

Slavery  in  Ohio. 

The  constitution  of  the  State  that  was  framed  in 
1802  forbade  slavery  and  also  forbade  the  indenture  of 
blacks  and  inulattoes  for  a  longer  period  than  one 
year.18  This  provision  was  passed  by  a  bare  majority 
vote,  as  we  have  already  seen,19  which  shows  that 
public  sentiment  was  by  no  means  unanimous  against 
slavery.  This  continued  to  be  true  for  several  decades, 
as  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  slavery,  real  slavery,  was 
permitted  in  the  State  for  many  years,  despite  the 
constitutional  provision  against  it.  This  fact,  that 
Ohio  was  "a  slave  State"  in  a  small  way,  will  come  as 
a  surprise  to  most  readers,  but  I  believe  there  is 
material  to  prove  this  statement. 

The  United  States  Census  of  1830  states  that 
there  were  six  slaves  in  Ohio  at  that  time.  This  is 
corroborated  by  the  following  clipping  entitled  "Slav 
ery  in  Ohio"  from  the  Ohio  State  Journal  of  March 
3,  1832,  two  years  after  the  census  above  mentioned 
was  taken :  "It  appears  by  a  late  report  of  the  Secre 
tary  of  State,  made  in  obedience  to  a  resolution  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  that  there  are  actually  six 
colored  slaves  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  viz:  two  in  the 
county  of  Montgomery,  one  in  the  county  of  Butler, 
one  in  the  county  of  Clarke,  and  two  in  the  county  of 
Hamilton.  Of  these,  three  are  females  over  twenty- 
four  and  under  thirty-six  years  of  age;  and  the  others 
are  over  ten  and  under  twenty-four."20 

If  we  had  but  this  much  as  evidence,  we  might 
think,  as  others  have,  that  those  slaves  were  from  the 
South,  temporarily  sojourning  with  their  masters  in 

18  Constitution  of  1802,  Art.  VIII.,  Sec.  2. 

19  In  Chapter  I. 

20  Ohio  State  Journal,  March  3,  1832. 

This  was  all  that  was  said  about  the  matter  and,  although  I 
looked  carefully  over  future  issues  for  further  mention  of  this 
strange  condition  of  affairs,  I  could  find  none  and  was  forced  to 
conclude  that  the  editor  did  not  regard  it  as  anything  very  unusual 
or  interesting  to  his  readers. 


54  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

the  North,  but  this  idea  is  not  in  accordance  with  the 
following  evidence. 

In  an  old  newspaper,  The  Supporter,  published 
at  Chillicothe,  in  the  issue  of  December  8,  1813,  we 
find  this  advertisement: 

FOK  SALE, 
A  NEGKO  MAN, 

named  George  Panten,  for  ten  years  from  this  date 
In  the  town  of  Columbia  (Ohio)  on  the  Ohio  Kiver, 
five  and  one-half  miles  from  Cincinnati. 

(Signed)  JOHN  ARMSTRONG."21 

This  advertisement  ran  for  seven  consecutive 
weeks. 

In  the  southern  counties  of  the  State,  there  lived 
many  men  who  owned  plantations  in  the  South  and 
many  negroes  to  work  them  as  slaves.  Getting  ac 
customed  to  that  kind  of  service  while  in  the  South, 
it  is  very  probable  that  many  of  them  brought  picked 
slaves  north  to  act  as  their  domestic  servants. 

In  addition  to  this  farmers  in  the  border  counties 
along  the  Ohio  river  doubtless  kept  slaves  whom 
they  pretended  to  hire  from  their  masters  in  Ken 
tucky.22  We  know,  from  the  general  feeling  of  the 
whites  in  this  part  of  the  State  toward  the  negroes, 
that  there  would  be  no  objection  made  in  any  way  to 
such  practices. 

That  the  people  of  the  State  would  quietly  con 
sent  to  slavery  in  their  very  midst  is  certainly  suffi 
cient  to  show  that  they  were  far  from  looking  upon  the 
negroes  as  their  equals.  They  looked  upon  themselves 
as  sinned  against  and  not  as  the  sinners.  They  would 
do  nothing  that  would  encourage  the  black  men  to 

21  The  Supporter,  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  Dec.  8,  1813. 

22  W.  H.  Smith  in  his  Political  History  of  Slavery  says  there 
were  many  such  slaves  in  the  southern  counties. 


EARLY  SOCIAL  STATUS  55 

come  among  them,  but  on  the  other  hand,  would  do 
almost  anything  to  discourage  them. 

Having  now  seen  many  of  the  manifestations  of 
the  white  men's  attitude  toward  the  negroes,  it  will  be 
interesting  to  see  some  expressions  showing  the  view 
point  of  the  white  men  in  their  own  words.  As  the 
main  object  of  this  work  is  to  show  the  thoughts  that 
have  been  entertained  by  the  white  people  toward  the 
blacks,  I  shall  quote  somewhat  fully.  In  1827  the 
Legislature  appointed  a  special  committee  to  investi 
gate  "the  negro  problem,"  and  this  committee,  in 
December  of  that  year,  reported  through  its  chairman, 
Mr.  Walker,  as  follows : 

"The  negroes  are  in  many  parts  of  the  State  a 
serious  political  and  moral  evil.  Although  they  are 
nominally  free,  that  freedom  confers  only  the  privi 
lege  of  being  more  idle  and  vicious  than  slaves.  This 
is  obvious  to  every  man  who  witnesses  the  effect  in  our 
towns  and  villages  and  turns  his  attention  to  the 
relative  proportion  of  crime  between  the  colored  and 
white  population  of  the  State.  The  convicts  in  our 
pentitentiary  with  reference  to  the  whole  colored  and 
white  population  of  the  State  are  as  eight  of  the 
former  to  one  of  the  latter.23 

"Besides,  the  colored  population  has  a  tendency 
to  depress  and  discourage  the  white  laboring  classes 
of  the  State,  who  are  her  source  of  wealth  and  peace. 
Destitute  of  the  blessings  of  education  and  of  moral 
and  religious  instruction,  with  no  incentive  to  indus 
try  or  the  acquisition  of  an  honorable  reputation,  and 
devoid  of  the  intelligence  and  moral  restraint  neces 
sary  to  qualify  them  for  the  privileges  and  immuni- 

23  According  to  the  census  of  1850,  there  were  362  whites  and 
44  blacks  in  the  State  penitentiary.  In  every  10,000  whites  1.851 
were  prisoners,  and  in  every  10,000  blacks  17.405  were  prisoners. 
This  gives  a  ratio  of  more  than  9  to  I.  And,  at  the  present  time^ 
according  to  statistics  in  my  possession,  there  are  nearly  seven  col 
ored  people  in  prison  in  Ohio  to  one  white  person,  considering  their 
relative  populations. 


56  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

ties  of  citizens,  they  form  an  excrescence  on  the  body 
politic,  which,  if  it  cannot  be  removed,  should  not  be 
permitted  to  increase  by  emigration."24 

In  an  editorial  in  the  Ohio  State  Journal,  Decem 
ber  22,  1827,  we  find  the  following :  "The  character 
of  the  negroes,  as  observed  in  all  our  villages  general 
ly,  presents  one  uniform  standard,  that  of  being  an 
idle,  intemperate  and  dissolute  race ;  alike  a  burden  on 
the  resources  of  the  State  and  to  the  energies  of  the 

laboring  class  of  our  citizens Wretched  as  their 

present  political  standing  is  in  our  State,  even  hope 
yields  not  to  the  prospects  of  the  future.  Their  color 
draws  an  impassable  barrier  between  them  and  the 
whites  which  they  can  never  hope  to  surmount.  'Col 
or,'  remarks  the  U.  S.  Revieiv,  'has  become  the  signal 
distinction,  by  the  mere  habit  of  connecting  the  idea 
of  slave  with  that  of  a  dark  skin, — nor  can  it  be  other 
wise  while  the  principles  of  association  hold  their 
place  among  the  first  elements  of  the  human  mind.' 
The  bondsmen  of  ancient  Greece  and  Kome  were  of 
the  same  color  with  their  masters.  When  affection  or 
interest  loosed  their  chains,  they  were  received  into 
the  bosom  of  the  commonwealth  and  became  entitled 
to  all  the  privileges  of  citizens.  Alliances  were  not 
disgraceful  with  the  manumitted  bondsman.  But  far 
different  is  the  situation  of  the  manumitted  blacks  in 
this  country.  To  use  the  appropriate  words  of  the 
late  Robert  G.  Harper,  'Be  their  industry  ever  so 
great,  or  their  conduct  ever  so  correct,  whatever  prop 
erty  they  may  have  acquired,  or  whatever  respect  we 
may  feel  for  their  characters,  we  never  will  consent 
to  see  the  two  races  placed  on  a  footing  of  perfect 
equality  with  each  other,  to  see  the  free  blacks  or  their 
descendants  visit  in  our  homes,  form  part  of  our  so 
cial  acquaintances,  marry  into  our  families,  or  partic 
ipate  in  public  honors  or  employments."25 

24  Ohio  State  Journal,  Dec.  19,  1827. 

25  Ohio  State  Journal,  Dec.  22,  1827. 


EARLY  SOCIAL  STATUS 


57 


In  1832  the  status  of  the  negroes  was  again  the 
subject  of  investigation  by  the  Legislature.  The  com 
mittee  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  subject  reported 
through  its  chairman,  Mr.  Worthington,  of  Eoss  coun 
ty,  in  part  as  follows :  "That,  after  a  careful  investi 
gation  of  the  matter  referred  to  them  they  view  the 
present  situation  and  future  prospects  of  Ohio,  in  re 
gard  to  this  class  of  people,  as  one  of  peculiar  and 
painful  interest,  whether  as  relating  to  the  moral 
character,  or  political  prosperity  of  her  citizens.  The 
existence  in  any  community  of  a  people  forming  a 
distinct  and  degraded  caste,  who  are  forever  excluded 
by  the  fiat  of  society  and  the  laws  of  the  land  from  all 
hopes  of  equality  in  social  intercourse  and  political 
privileges,  must  from  the  nature  of  things  be  fraught 
with  unmixed  evil,  and  this  evil  is  especially  felt 
where  they  are  congregated  in  considerable  numbers 
in  the  larger  towns.  White  men  will  not  degrade 
themselves  in  society  by  adopting  the  employment  of, 
and  coming  into  competition  with  the  blacks,  a  peo 
ple  of  a  degraded  and  dependent  condition  and  of  dis 
solute  conduct,  a  people  upon  whom  society  has  affix 
ed  the  brand  of  infamy  from  their  birth ;  with  whom 
it  is  considered  disgraceful  for  the  meanest  white  man 
to  associate. 

"Did  this  committee  believe  it  possible  by  acts  of 
legislation  to  remove  this  blot  from  the  body  politic, 
by  so  elevating  the  social  and  moral  condition  of  the 
blacks  in  Ohio  that  they  would  be  received  into  soci 
ety  on  terms  of  equality  and  would  by  common  con 
sent  be  admitted  to  a  participation  in  political  priv 
ileges — were  such  a  thing  possible,  even  after  a  lapse 
of  time  and  by  a  pecuniary  sacrifice — most  gladly 
would  they  recommend  such  measures  as  would  sub 
serve  the  cause  of  humanity  by  producing  such  a  re 
sult. 

"But  they  appeal  to  the  experience  of  every  man 
in  this  community  to  bear  them  out  in  the  assertion 


58  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

that  such  an  amalgamation  is  repudiated  at  once  by 
the  strong  and  unconquerable  feeling  of  the  society  in 
which  we  live.  Whether  this  feeling  be  right  or 
wrong,  reasonable  or  unreasonable,  it  is  not  the  prov 
ince  of  this  committee  to  inquire.  That  is  a  question 
for  the  philosopher  and  metaphysician. 

"For  the  purposes  of  legislation,  it  is  sufficient 
to  know  that  the  blacks  in  Ohio  must  always  exist  as 
a  separate  and  degraded  race;  that  when  the  leopard 
shall  change  his  spots  and  the  Ethiopian  his  skin, 
then,  but  not  till  then,  may  we  expect  that  the  de- 
scendents  of  Africans  will  be  admitted  into  society  on 
terms  of  social  and  political  equality."26 

Having  now  gotten  the  views  of  two  different 
committees  in  two  Legislatures  five  years  apart, 
and  also  an  editorial  from  one  of  the  lead 
ing  newspapers  of  the  State,  we  will  now  turn 
to  the  words  of  a  judge  on  the  bench  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State.  In  1842,  in  the  case  of 
Edwill  Thacker  vs.  John  Hawk  et  al.  the  Supreme 
Court  decided  by  a  bare  majority  vote  that  all  persons 
less  than  half  negro  in  blood  had  the  right  of  electors 
in  Ohio.  Justice  N.  C.  Keed  of  Cincinnati,  dissented 
from  the  view  of  the  majority  in  the  following  words : 

"This  exclusion  of  persons  of  color,  or  of  any  de 
gree  of  colored  blood  from  all  political  rights  is  not 
founded  upon  a  mere  naked  prejudice,  but  upon  nat 
ural  differences.  The  two  races  are  placed  as  wide 
apart  by  the  hand  of  nature  as  white  from  black ;  and 
to  break  down  the  barriers  fixed,  as  it  were,  by  the 
Creator  himself,  in  a  political  and  social  amalgama 
tion  shocks  us  as  something  unnatural  and  wrong. 
It  strikes  us  as  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature.  It 
would  be  productive  of  no  good.  It  would  degrade 
the  white,  if  it  could  be  accomplished,  without  elevat 
ing  the  black.  Indeed,  if  we  gather  lessons  of  wisdom 
from  the  history  of  mankind — walk  by  the  light  of  our 

20  Ohio  State  Journal,  Feb.  i,  1832. 


EARLY  SOCIAL  STATUS  59 

experience,  or  consult  the  principles  of  human  nature, 
we  shall  be  convinced  that  the  two  races  never  can 
live  together  upon  terms  of  equality  and  harmony. 
The  distinctions  are  too  marked  to  be  overcome  by  the 
power  of  political  action,  and  the  folly  of  the  attempt 
will  probably  be  only  equaled  by  the  fatal  consequen 
ces  of  the  result.  In  view  of  these  conclusions  and  in 
this  feeling,  our  constitution  was  formed,  and  such 
views  and  feelings  have  always  directed-  the  policy  of 
the  State.  The  practical  construction  which  we  have 
given  our  constitution  for  a  period  of  more  than  forty 
years  has  been  to  exclude  all  persons,  of  all  degrees 
of  black  or  negro  blood  from  the  exercise  or  enjoy 
ment  of  all  political  rights. 

"The  policy  of  the  State  always  has  been  to  dis 
courage  the  immigration  and  settlement  of  persons  of 
color  among  us.  The  decision  of  this  Court  conferring 
the  political  rights  upon  all  less  than  half  black,  is  an 
inducement  for  such  to  immigrate  to  the  State  and  re 
main  here.  It  violates  the  spirit  of  the  constitution, 
because  in  principle  I  see  no  difference  in  allowing  a 
mulatto  to  vote,  and  a  person  a  little  less  than  mulat 
to,  or  a  full  black ;  for  the  taint  of  black  blood  extends 
to  them  all,  and  this  is  the  reason  of  their  exclusion."27 

From  the  evidence  here  presented  we  are  forced 
to  conclude  that  the  negroes  of  Ohio,  during  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  were  in  a  miserable 
condition,  economically,  morally  and  mentally.  This 
naturally  fixed  to  a  great  extent  their  status  in  the 
life  of  the  State,  but  we  everywhere  see  the  one  other 
element,  race  prejudice,  constantly  entering  in  to  col 
or  the  view  that  the  white  man  took  of  the  black  man. 
To  him  "hope  yielded  not  to  the  future"  for  the  color 
line  was  everywhere  and  was  everlasting,  forming  an 
impassable  barrier  between  the  two  races,  which  the 
black  man  could  never  hope  to  surmount. 

27  Thacker  vs.  Hawk  et  al.—XI  Ohio  Reports,  376. 


CHAPTER  V. 

FEELING  TOWARD  THE  NEGRO  AS  EXPRESSED  IN  THE 
CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851. 

Mr.  Worthington,  a  delegate  from  Chillicothe, 
speaking  in  the  constitutional  convention  February 
17,  1851,  made  the  following  statement :  "The  gentle 
man  says  that  at  the  time  of  the  Eevolution  there 
was  less  prejudice  against  the  black  race  than  there  is 
at  present.  That  is  undoubtedly  true;  and  it  is  also 
true  that  the  prejudice,  if  you  will  so  call  it,  has  in 
creased  at  each  successive  period  of  time,  and  the  ir 
resistible  inference  from  such  a  state  of  facts  is,  that 
the  longer  the  two  races  occupy  the  same  soil,  the 
greater  will  be  their  repulsion  and  the  stronger  the 
prejudice."1  This  statement  was  probably  made  off 
hand,  and  very  probably  fell  upon  many  deaf  ears, 
just  as  it  would  today ;  but  such  a  statement  is  surely 
worthy  of  an  investigation.  This  investigation  I  am 
now  making.  I  have  stated  the  facts  as  I  have  found 
them,  covering  fifty  years  before  this  utterance  was 
made  in  1851,  and  I  shall  give  the  facts  for  the  six  de 
cades  intervening  between  then  and  now,  and  the  read 
er  may  then  determine  for  himself  the  amount  of  truth 
there  was  in  the  inference  that  the  speaker  drew, 
or  in  his  prophecy  that  "the  longer  the  two  races  oc 
cupy  the  same  soil,  the  greater  will  be  their  repulsion 
and  the  stronger  the  prejudice." 

The  constitutional  convention  of  1802  lasted  less 
than  thirty  days,  and  its  proceedings  were  recorded  in 
less  than  that  number  of  pages  and,  consequently,  we 
know  little  of  its  inner  workings.  But  the  convention 
of  1850-51  lasted  almost  a  year,  and  its  proceedings 
are  published  in  two  volumes  of  about  one  thousand 
pages  each.  The  result  is  that  we  have  in  these  volum 
inous  debates  a  storehouse  of  facts  pertaining  to  the 

1  Convention  Debates,  1850-51,  II,  639. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851          61 

status  of  the  negro  in  the  State,  as  this  question  was 
prominent  in  the  deliberations  of  the  convention  from 
the  first  to  the  last. 

Petitions  came  in  to  the  convention  from  every 
part  of  the  State,  and  these  represented  every  shade 
of  opinion  on  the  subject,  I  find  that  there  were  twen 
ty-nine  petitions,  from  ten  different  counties,  with  a 
total  list  of  over  fifteen  hundred  names,  asking  for 
equal  rights,  political  and  legal,  for  the  negro  :2  there 
were  three  petitions,  from  three  counties,  with  two 
hundred  names,  asking  that  the  negro  be  permitted  to 
vote:3  on  the  other  hand,  three  petitions,  from  three 
counties,  with  two  hundred  and  forty-nine  names,  ask 
ing  that  the  negro  be  denied  the  privilege  of  voting;4 
eight  petitions  from  seven  different  counties,  with  613 
names,  asking  that  the  negro  be  prohibited  from  com 
ing  into  the  State;5  five  petitions  from  six  counties, 
with  five  hundred  and  twenty-one  names,  asking  that 
the  negroes  then  living  in  Ohio  be  in  one  way  or  an 
other  removed  from  the  State.6 

The  equal  rights  petitioners  made  by  far  the  best 
showing  in  the  number  of  petitioners  and  signers,  but 
accomplished  no  results ;  and  the  petitions  were  prob 
ably  the  work  of  a  few  enthusiasts.  I  am  led  to  this 
conclusion  from  the  fact  that  the  same  name  headed 
tAvo  of  the  petitions  from  one  county.7  and  another 
name  headed  two  petitions  from  a  second  county,8  and 
I  am  further  convinced  by  the  fact  that  the  represen 
tatives  from  Stark  and  Warren  counties,  from  which 
respectively  came  eleven  and  four  of  the  petitions  out 
of  a  total  of  tAventy-nine,  voted  against  the  negro  at 

"Debates,  I,  31,  56,  59,  75,  107,  108,  191,  236,  313,  337,  354,  726. 
II,  5,  34,  192,  232. 

•3  Debates,  I,  298,  313,  474. 

4  Debates,  I,  236,  374,  458. 

5  Debates,  II,  5,  140,  159,  191,  339,  458. 

6  Debates,  I,  28,  458,  459.  II,  191. 

7  Debates,  I,  354. 
'Debates,  I,  236. 


62  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

almost  every  opportunity.9  Portage  county  furnished 
seven  of  the  petitions,  and  her  delegate  voted  for  the 
negro.9  Muskingum,  Clark,  Ashland,  Miami  and 
Hamilton  counties  furnished  one  petition  each,  and  in 
every  case  their  delegates  voted  against  the  equal 
rights  petitioned  for.10 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Warren  county,  stated  to  the  con 
vention  that  the  four  petitions  from  his  county  rep 
resented  the  sentiments  of  a  very  small  portion  of  his 
district.11  Mr.  Archbold,  of  Monroe  county,  called 
these  petitions  "effusions  of  folly  and  fanaticism.''12 

William  Sawyer,  delegate  from  Auglaize,  one  of 
the  northern  counties,  in  unequivocal  terms  opposed 
the  reception  of  equal  rights  petitions,  saying  that  he 
felt  constrained  by  a  sense  of  duty  to  his  constituents 
to  say,  here  and  now,  he  would  not  sit  still  and  permit 
even  his  fellow  citizens  to  petition  that  negroes  should 
be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of 
white  men  without  raising  his  voice  against  it.  The 
petition  was  one  that  they  had  no  right  to  consider ; 
to  him  it  was  revolting  and  an  insult  to  the  freemen  of 
Ohio.  He  held  that  there  were  some  things  that  even 
a  white  man  had  no  right  to  petition  for.13  Later, 
when  the  subject  of  receiving  the  same  kind  of  peti 
tion  again  come  up  and  its  sponsor  said  that  it  was 
couched  in  respectful  language  and  ought  therefore 
to  be  received,  Mr.  Mitchell,  of  Knox  county,  said  that 
he  doubted  very  seriously  if  petitions  aiming  to  class 
the  negroes  of  the  State,  with  reference  to  their  rights 
and  interests,  side  by  side  with  the  wives  and  daugh 
ters  of  the  whites,  could  be  made  in  respectful  lan 
guage.14 

When  the  matter  of  receiving  petitions  from  col- 

9  Debates,  II,  19,  350,  554. 

10  Debates,  II,  19,  350,  554. 
"Debates,  II,  57. 

"  Debates,  I,  76. 

13  Debates,  I,  56,  107. 

14  Debates,  I,  76. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851          63 

ored  people  themselves  came  up,  there  was  the  strong 
est  opposition  manifested  by  many  members.  Mr. 
Holmes,  of  Hamilton  county,  said,  "I  am  unwilling  to 
receive  petitions  from  the  colored  portion  of  our  pop 
ulation,  or  even  seem  to  entertain  any  disposition  to 
receive  them."14  Mr.  Townsend,  of  Lorain  county, 
presented  a  petition  for  equal  rights  signed  by  an  edu 
cated  constituent,  who  happened  to  have  some  negro 
blood  in  his  veins  but  was  nearer  white  than  black. 
Mr.  Sawyer  immediately  rose  and  said  that  he  object 
ed  to  this  petition  more  especially  than  any  other.15 
Mr.  Robertson,  of  Fairfield  county,  stated  "that  the 
Supreme  Court  had  declared  the  petitioner  a  citizen; 
he  did  not  believe  they  were  right  in  so  doing.  He 
hoped  there  would  be  a  clause  in  the  new  constitution 
against  allowing  such  persons  to  become  citizens."1 
Mr.  Loudon,  of  Brown  county,  "believed  it  was  the 
opinion  of  his  constituents  that  very  few  blacks  in 
Ohio  had  the  right  to  come  here  and  ask  anything  at 
our  hands;  they  were  tresspassers,  in  other  words, 
on  the  limits  of  this  State."17  All  of  this  oppostition 
to  receiving  petitions  in  behalf  of,  and  from,  colored 
inhabitants  was  overcome  and  all  petitions  were  ac 
cepted,  there  being  many  anti-negro  members  who 
stood  boldly  for  right  of  petition  as  an  American  birth 
right  that  was  not  to  be  tampered  with. 

The  three  petitions  praying  the  convention  to 
give  the  negro  the  ballot  met  with  the  same  treatment 
as  those  asking  for  equal  rights,  but  the  three  that 
asked  for  a  denial  of  the  ballot  got  what  they  wanted, 
as  it  was  the  almost  unanimous  wish  of  the  State  and 
of  the  convention.  The  eight  petitions  against  negro 
immigration  and  the  five  for  extradition  were  wel 
comed  by  a  large  number  of  the  members  of  the  con 
vention,  but  their  object  was  not  accomplished.  Pro- 

15  Debates,  I,  458. 
18  Debates,  I,  459. 
"Debates,  I,  459. 


64  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

posals  for  State  aid  to  colonization  were  sometimes 
included  in  these  last  named  petitions.  Daniel  Drake, 
of  Scioto  county,  a  prominent  man  and  well  known 
for  his  contributions  to  the  early  history  of  Ohio, 
petitioned  the  convention  to  stop  the  immigration  of 
negroes  and  to  enact  laws  favoring  African  coloniza 
tion.18  Mr.  Loudon,  of  Brown  county,  in  speaking  of 
the  views  of  his  people  on  the  subject  of  extradition, 
said,  "There  is  a  feeling  in  the  section  of  the  country 
that  I  come  from  upon  this  one  particular  subject  of 
extradition  that  outweighs  perhaps  all  other  feelings 
with  regard  to  the  doing  of  this  Ohio  convention.  A 
majority  of  the  people  I  represent,  without  regard,  I 
may  say,  to  whether  they  are  of  the  Democratic  party 
or  of  the  Whig  party,  believe  with  the  fathers  of  this 
State  that  this  should  be  a  State  for  the  white  man 
and  the  white  man  only."19 

The  following  petition,  signed  by  one-hundred 
and  thirty-five  people  of  Butler  county  and 
presented  to  the  convention  by  their  delegate, 
Mr.  King,  is  very  interesting  and  instructive  as  to  the 
general  tenor  of  the  petitions  of  like  kind : 

"To  the  convention,  called  to  change  the  consti 
tution  of  Ohio: 

"Gentlemen : — The  undersigned,  citizens  of  But 
ler  county,  Ohio,  respectfully  petition  your  honorable 
body,  and  pray,  that  provision  be  made,  in  the  consti 
tution  that  you  are  now  framing,  for  the  removal  of 
all  persons  of  negro,  or  part  negro  blood,  from  the 
State  of  Ohio.  And  also  that  such  other  and  further 
provision  may  be  made,  by  preventing  the  influx  and 
immigration  of  negroes,  as  will  eventually  restore  to 
the  State  of  Ohio,  a  population  of  free  white  people, 
and  none  other. 

"A  separation  we  regard  as  alike  advantageous 
to  both  races;  and  therefore,  without  wishing  to  in- 

1S  Debates,  II,  159. 
19  Debates,  I,  28. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851          65 

jure  the  negroes,  we  ask  that  they  be  removed.  But, 
as  the  power  of  removal  is  an  important  one,  we  wish 
it  exercised  with  great  prudence  and  humanity.  No 
negro  should  be  deprived  of  his  property,  without  re 
ceiving  a  compensation  in  money,  and  none  should  be 
removed  until  provision  is  made  for  them  in  another 
country.  But,  whatever  may  be  the  consequence  to 
the  negroes,  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  the  white 
race,  both  as  to  the  present  and  future  generations, 
requires  the  removal,  and  therefore  it  should  be 
done."20 

These  petitions  and  comments  made  thereon  by 
the  members  of  the  convention  reveal  bitter  anti-ne 
gro  sentiments  throughout  the  State.  The  strongest 
prejudice  was  shown  to  be  in  the  southern  counties 
of  the  State,  as  every  petition  against  the  negro  had 
its  origin  in  that  half  of  the  State,  if  we  except  this 
interesting  little  touch,  coming  from  the  otherwise 
"unbroken  North:"  Mr.  Humphreyville  presented  a 
petition  from  Medina  county,  signed  by  thirty-three 
citizens  asking  for  equal  rights  for  the  negro,  and  at 
the  bottom  of  the  same  paper  were  the  signatures  of 
"seven  citizens  of  the  same  township,  stating  that  they 
cannot  conscientiously  subscribe  to  the  above  petition, 
because  it  is  not  true  democracy."21 

The  intense  prejudice  of  the  southern  counties 
was  due,  as  has  been  intimated  before,  to  the  fact  that 
a  large  number  of  the  population  was  from  the  South 
and,  from  birth  and  education,  or  from  social  and  bus 
iness  relations,  were  heartily  in  sympathy  with  their 
old  home  interests  and  institutions  and  naturally 
cherished  a  strong  antipathy  for  the  negroes.  Anoth 
er  reason  for  the  southern  counties  feeling  more  of  this 
prejudice  than  the  northern  counties  was  that  they 
had  many  times  the  number  of  negroes  among  them 

20  Debates,  II,  191. 

21  Debates,  I,  191. 


66  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

that  the  northern  ones  had,  came  more  intimately  in 
to  contact  with  them  and  saw  them  at  their  worst. 
These  negroes  eked  out  a  miserable  existence  working 
at  odd  jobs  and  stayed  close  by  the  Ohio  river,  as  there 
was  always  a  demand  for  unskilled  labor  there  in  the 
loading  and  unloading  of  boats.22  This  sort  of  work 
was  much  more  congenial  to  them  than  the  more  con 
tinuous,  if  not  more  irksome,  labor  of  farming.  The 
long  intervals  between  tasks  or  "jobs"  gave  them  am 
ple  opportunity  to  stretch  themselves  on  some  plank, 
bask  in  the  sun  and  dream  of  the  sweet  liberty  they 
enjoyed,  or  to  get  together  in  groups  and  sing  their 
own  peculiar  songs.  They  worked  just  enough  to  keep 
body  and  soul  together  and,  as  a  consequence,  they 
were  generally  miserably  poor,  ignorant,  and  too  often 
vicious. 

The  following  description  in  the  Cincinnati  Ga 
zette  in  1835  of  a  large  settlement  known  as  the 
"Camps"  in  Brown  county,  where  about  one  thousand 
negroes  had  settled  in  1820,  gives  us  a  picture  of  them 
that  must  resemble  in  many  ways  the  picture  that  was 
in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  the  southern  counties, 
when  they  spoke  so  bitterly  of  the  idea  of  classing 
them  as  their  equals : 

"They  are  so  extremely  lazy  and  stupid  that  the 
neighboring  farmers  will  not  employ  them  to  any  ex 
tent.  They  do  not  raise  produce  enough  on  their  own 
lands  to  keep  their  families,  much  less  do  they  have 
a  surplus  to  sell  abroad.  They  pass  most  of  their  time 
in  little  smoking  cabins,  too  listless  to  even  fiddle  and 
dance.  One  may  pass  through  the  'negro  camps/  pass 
ing  a  dozen  straggling  cabins  with  smoke  issuing  out 
of  the  ends  of  them,  without  seeing  a  soul  either  at 
work  or  play.  The  fear  of  starvation  makes  them 
work  the  least  possible  quantity,  while  they  are  a  great 

22  They  have  clung  to  that  kind  of  work  to  this  day  in  that  local 
ity,  for  it  has  a  fascination  for  them  which  they  cannot  resist. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851  67 

deal  too  lazy  to  play.  There  are  not  more  than  two 
or  three  families  out  of  the  whole  who  have  been  ben- 
efitted  by  the  change  from  slavery  to  freedom."23 

The  people  of  the  northern  part  of  the  State,  un 
like  the  people  of  the  southern  part,  saw  few  such  pic 
tures,  and  so  their  humanity  was  put  to  a  much  light 
er  test.  Besides,  the  population  here  was  largely  from 
the  Eastern  States.  They  had  come  to  Ohio  with  few 
prejudices  against  the  negro,  as  they  had  generally  no 
life-long  associations  with  him  and  little  commercial 
dealing.  The  few  negroes  that  moved  up  among  them 
were  necessarily  more  ambitious  and  capable  than 
their  brothers  or  else  they  would  have  remained  be 
hind  along  with  the  rest,  pursuing  the  path  of  least 
resistance.  They  settled  often  upon  small  farms  and 
in  the  small  towns  and  generally  did  much  better  for 
themselves  than  they  possibly  could  have  done  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  State. 

The  following  description  of  the  negroes  of  Cleve 
land,  as  given  by  Mr.  Andrews  of  that  city,  is  at  the  op 
posite  extreme  from  the  picture  already  presented  of 
the  negroes  in  the  southern  part  of  the  State  ;"We  have 
about  three  hundred  negroes  in  the  city  of  Cleveland, 
and  I  venture  to  say  that  there  is  not  a  man  among 
them  who  is  not  qualified  to  vote.  As  long  ago  as  1845, 
twenty  colored  people  in  that  city  had  property  which 
was  estimated  at  thirty-six  thousand  dollars.  They 
have  various  organizations  for  their  improvement,  and 
their  children  are  educated  in  our  common  schools 
with  the  white  children.  The  truth  is  that,  if  we  ap 
ply  to  them  the  same  measure  of  qualification  that  we 
do  to  the  whites,  they  are  as  well  qualified  to  exercise 
the  right  of  suffrage  as  thousands  of  white  voters  in 
this  or  any  other  State."24 

So  the  circumstances  under  which  the  northern 

23  Cincinnati  Gazette,  copied  into  Niks'  Register  of  October  3, 
1835,  XUX,  76. 

24  Debates,  II,  636. 


68  THE  COIvOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

Ohio  white  man  formed  his  opinion  of  the  black  man 
were  very  unlike  those  of  his  brother  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  State;  and  the  result  was  that  he  felt  much 
less  prejudice.  The  two  sections  could  not  understand 
one  another's  point  of  view,  and  there  came  about  as 
a  result  a  division  of  the  State  in  regard  to  the  negro 
into  a  "North"  and  a  "South,"  much  resembling  the 
division  of  the  United  States  that  was  taking  place  at 
about  this  same  time  and  over  the  same  question.  And 
one  thing  most  conducive  to  this  misunderstanding, 
both  in  State  and  Nation,  was  lack  of  communication 
between  the  two  sections.  Mr.  Andrews,  of  Cleveland, 
speaking  to  the  convention  February  17,  1851,  said: 

"The  Telegraph  of  this  morning  brings  us  the  in 
telligence  that  contains  the  promise  of  good  things  to 
come.  At  this  moment,  sir,  while  I  am  speaking,  the 
first  locomotive  is  on  its  way  from  Columbus  to  Cleve 
land,  proclaiming  that  the  space  between  the  northern 
and  the  southern  boundary  of  the  State  is  annihilated 
and  that  the  Ohio  river  and  Lake  Erie  are  side  by 
side.  I  hope,  sir,  that  this  great  event  will  be  the 
harbinger  of  a  better  state  of  feeling,  that  it  will  deep 
en  and  multiply  the  channels  of  intercourse  between 
the  different  sections  of  the  State,  that  it  will  correct 
misapprehension  and  remove  prejudice  on  all  sides 
and  be  the  means  of  making  us  in  heart,  as  we  now  are 
in  name,  one  people."25 

Let  us  develop  further  the  difference  in  prejudice 
in  the  two  sections  of  the  State,  keeping  in  mind  the 
difference  in  the  number  of  blacks  in  the  two  sections, 
and  we  shall  come  to  what,  in  my  opinion,  is  the  most 
tangible  explanation  of  this  peculiar  feeling  of  race- 
prejudice.  Mr.  Green,  of  Koss  county,  which  is  in  the 
southern  portion  of  the  State,  speaking  upon  the  mat 
ter  of  the  State  paying  for  the  transportation  of  the 
negroes  to  Africa,  said : 

28  Debates,  II,  637. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851         •  69 

"The  presence  of  the  blacks  among  us  is  a  nui 
sance,  especially  in  the  southern  portion  of  the  State ; 
and  the  people  of  this  portion  of  the  State  would  sub 
mit  to  no  tax  more  cheerfully  than  that  by  which  they 
might  get  rid  of  this  nuisance.  There  is  no  division 
of  sentiment  amongst  us  in  regard  to  this  matter.  Gen' 
tlemen  from  the  northern  part  of  the  State  could  not 
by  reason  of  their  prejudices  understand  why  this  is 
so.  But,  if  they  were  to  come  down  and  live  amongst 
us,  they  would  get  some  information  upon  the  subject. 
They  would  learn  this  fact,  that  we  are  opposed  to  el 
evating  the  blacks  to  the  same  rank  with  ourselves; 
but  that,  while  we  consider  them  an  inferior  class  of 
beings,  we  treat  them  with  the  same  kindness  and 
faithfulness  which  we  extend  to  all  others  in  the  same 
condition  of  life;  we  feed  them  well,  and  we  do  not 
overtask  them But,  I  repeat,  they  are  a  nui 
sance  among  us.  What  do  the  people  of  the  northern 
counties  know  of  the  practical  workings  of  the  colored 
people  among  us?  They  know  nothing  of  the  charac 
ter  of  this  class  of  people ;  they  are  totally  unacquaint 
ed  with  them.  They  get  up  here  and  in  the  name  of 
humanity  and  universal  right  endeavor  to  impress  the 
public  mind  with  the  necessity  of  throwing  wide  open 
our  doors  to  the  admission  of  this  people  among  us : — 
when,  at  the  same  time,  they  ought  to  know  perfectly 
that  we  at  the  South  must  suffer  the  evil  and  not 
they."2  Mr.  Sawyer,  of  Auglaze  county  in  the  north 
western  part  of  the  State,  but  nevertheless  probably 
the  most  bitter  anti-negro  man  in  the  convention,  said, 
•"If  you  will  look  at  the  statistics  furnished  by  the  re 
cent  census,  you  will  find  that  in  those  counties  of  this 
State,  where  abolitionism  or  free-soilism  predominates 
there  are  the  fewest  negroes.  It  is  in  the  southern 
counties,  bordering  on  Kentucky,  where  there  is  the 
largest  proportion  of  negroes  and  mulattoes;  and 
those  counties  are  the  least  friendly  to  them.  Either 

20  Debates,  II,  337,  338. 


7o  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

the  negroes  do  not  know  their  friends  in  the  north  or 
else  they  will  not  go  to  them."27 

Mr.  Worthington,  of  Eoss  county,  said,  "To  the 
part  of  the  State  which  he  had  the  honor  to  represent, 
the  negro  is  a  serious  practical  question  and  a  serious 
grievance,  and  we  are  better  acquainted  with  the  con 
dition  of  the  colored  population  of  the  State  than  a 
man  from  the  north  possibly  can  be.  The  prejudice 
against  the  negro  is  worse  than  it  ever  has  been,  and 
it  is  idle  to  suppose  that  this  sentiment  will  ever  de 
crease  as  long  as  the  two  races  remain  together."2 

We  shall  now  have  some  expressions  from  pro-ne 
gro  territory,  the  very  center  of  which  was  the  West 
ern  Reserve,  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the  State. 
Mr.  Townsend,  of  Lorain  county,  Western  Reserve, 
one  of  the  two  men  who  secured  the  repeal  of  the  Black 
Laws  in  1849,  said : 

"We  have  some  negroes  among  us,  there  being 
about  one  hundred  in  the  village  where  I  live.  We 
have  little  prejudice  against  them,  their  children  going 
to  the  same  schools  as  the  white  children.  Our  sym 
pathy  for  them  does  not  spring  from  our  ignorance  of 
them,  but  from  the  conviction  that  they  are  human 
beings  and  therefore  entitled  to  all  the  rights  and 
privileges  and  sympathies  due  to  humanity,  and  from 
the  conviction  that  they,  equally  with  other  men,  are 
susceptible  of  intellectual  and  moral  elevation."29  Mr. 
Taylor,  of  Erie  county,  Western  Reserve,  in  replying 
to  the  words  of  Mr.  Green,  of  Ross  county,  quoted 
above,  said,  "In  respect  to  the  allusion  to  the  compar 
ative  extent  of  the  black  population  in  the  northern 
and  southern  portions  of  the  State,  it  might  be  that  all 
the  counties  of  the  Western  Reserve  did  not  contain 
as  many  colored  people  as  the  single  county  of  Ross.3* 

27  Debates,  II,  12. 

28  Debates,  II,  639. 

29  Debates,  II,  12. 

30  According  to  the  census  of  1850,  the  eleven  counties  of  the 
Reserve  had  1,231  negroes  in  them,   while  Ross  county  alone  had 
1,906. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851  71 

And  why  this  was  so  he  could  not  tell,  unless  it  might 
be  explained  by  the  familiar  adage,  'Birds  of  a  feather 
flock  together.7 — But  some  of  us  have  been  alluded  to 
as  the  peculiar  friends  of  the  negro.  We  are  not  the 
peculiar  friends  of  that,  or  any  other  portion  of  the 
population.  We  stand  upon  an  entirely  different  ba 
sis,  that  of  equal  rights — without  being  the  peculiar 
friends  of  any  class  in  particular.  We  disclaim  the 
term  'peculiar.'  We  ask  no  peculiar  favors  for  the 
colored  race;  we  are  only  opposed  to  peculiar  meas 
ures  against  them.  From  the  expressions  heard  on 
this  floor,  we  are  about  to  retrograde  in  our  treatment 
of  the  colored  population  of  the  State  by  commencing 
a  system  of  persecution  worse  than  that  which  we  al 
ready  have.  Where  will  it  end?  I  beg  the  gentlemen  to 
be  consistent  in  this  regard — let  them  proclaim  their 
real  designs — if  the  black  man  is  to  be  driven  across 
our  borders  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  let  them  say 
so."31 

Mr.  Andrews,  of  Cleveland,  said:  "We  all  know 
well  that  there  is  a  great  diversity  of  opinion  among 
the  people  of  the  State,  respecting  every  measure  af 
fecting  the  people  of  color,  and  such  a  sensitiveness 
on  the  subject  as  I  had  heretofore  no  conception  of. 
Every  movement  and  even  every  throb  of  sympathy  in 
their  behalf  seems  to  be  regarded  by  many  as  a  direct 
or  indirect  attack  on  slavery.  Sir,  they  don't  under 
stand  us  at  all.  Undoubtedly  the  people  of  northern 
Ohio  feel  a  deep  interest  in  the  condition  of  the  colored 
race,  but  they  will  leave  slavery  to  the  exclusive  con 
trol  of  the  Southern  States.  The  conditions  of  colored 
people  at  home  is  widely  different,  and  you  may  rest 
assured  that  in  every  enterprise  that  looks  to  their 
elevation  and  advancement  the  people  of  the  Reserve 
will  head  the  column  and  consider  the  place  where 
they  can  do  them  the  most  good  as  the  post  of  duty. 
You  now  propose  to  drive  out  of  the  State  all  colored 

31  Debates,  II,  338,  601,  12. 


72  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

people.  I  have  no  desire  to  perpetuate  in  our  consti 
tution  the  sympathies  of  one  portion  of  our  people  or 
the  prejudices  of  another.  But,  sir,  it  is  well  under 
stood  that  the  people  of  the  northern  part  of  the  State 
are  utterly  opposed  to  any  such  provision  and,  if  you 
insert  it,  you  may  depend  on  it  that  they  will  vote 
against  the  constitution  as  one  man.  I  do  not  know 
indeed  but  that  we  may  be  outnumbered  by  the  votes 
of  other  parts  of  the  State  and  compelled  to  submit 
to  it  for  a  time;  but  you  may  be  assured  that,  with 
this  provision  in  it,  your  new  constitution,  instead  of 
being  an  instrument  of  peace,  will  be  an  exhaustless 
fountain  of  strife  and  contention,  and  that  the  people 
of  the  north,  whose  feelings  are  thus  outraged,  will  not 
'give  sleep  to  their  eyes  nor  slumber  to  their  eyelids' 
until  they  have  stricken  out  this  obnoxious  feature."32 
The  negro  population  of  the  different  counties  of 
the  State,  according  to  the  census  of  1850,  will  be 
found  graphically  portrayed  in  Map  No.  4.  From  a 
study  of  this,  we  shall  find  among  other  things  that 
in  the  northern  half  of  the  State,  taking  in  forty-four 
counties,  there  were  3,836  negroes,  while  the  southern 
half  had  a  population  of  21,443.  Now,  if  we  consider 
Map  No.  5  in  connection  with  Map  No.  4,  we  shall  find 
that  the  north — and  indeed  we  can  almost  limit  it  to 
the  Western  Keserve  district — with  its  sparse  negro 
population  gave  almost  all  the  pro-negro  votes  that 
were  given  in  the  convention;  that  Hamilton  county 
in  the  southwestern  corner  of  the  State  had  a  negro 
population  of  3,600,  practically  as  large  as  the  whole 
northern  half  of  the  State,  and  it  registered  every  one 
of  its  votes  against  the  negro;  that  Franklin  and  Ross, 
two  other  southern  counties,  together  had  3,513  ne 
groes  and  they  voted  solidly  against  the  negro;  that 
Warren  and  Brown  together,  and  Clinton  and  High 
land  together  in  the  southwestern  corner,  had  larger 
negro  populations  than  all  the  eleven  counties  of 

32  Debates,  II,  604,  636. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851  73 

the  Western  Reserve,  in  the  extreme  northeastern  cor 
ner  of  the  State,  and  without  exception  they  voted 
against  the  colored  man ;  that  exactly  the  same  thing- 
may  be  said  for  Belmont  and  Muskingum  counties  in 
the  southeastern  part  of  the  State;  and  finally,  taking 
a  general  survey,  we  shall  find  that  wherever  the  ne 
groes  are  comparatively  numerous  there  the  anti-ne 
gro  votes  are  recorded.  Or,  in  other  words,  and  this 
is  the  point  that  I  have  been  working  up  to,  the  greater 
the  negro  population,  the  greater  the  white  man's 
prejudice.33 

Having  seen  the  feeling  of  the  convention  toward 
receiving  petitions  from,  and  in  behalf  of,  the  negroes, 
and  having  noted  from  what  portion,  and  from  how 
large  a  portion  of  the  State  this  feeling  emanated,  one 
may  easily  imagine  the  general  way  in  which  the  con 
vention  handled  the  different  proposals  pertaining  to 
the  status  of  the  colored  man.  There  were  three  main 
proposals  which  brought  out,  by  speeches  and  by  votes, 
the  sentiment  of  the  State  as  a  whole  on  this  great 
question.  They  were  (1)  to  enroll  the  negro  in  the 
militia,  (2)  to  give  him  the  right  of  suffrage,  and  (3) 
to  permit  him  to  enter  the  public  schools  along  with 
the  whites.34  We  shall  consider  these  propositions  in 
order,  taking  up  first  the  provision  as  to  the  militia. 

33  And  the  same  thing  is  true  today,  at  least  for  the  State  of 
Ohio,  and  I  regard  this  fact  as  one  of  the  most  important  results  of 
this  investigation.    I  shall  develop  it  more  fully  in  the  last  chapter. 
I  make  the  statement,  not  only  from  a  study  of  the  past,  'but  from 
a  thorough  investigation  of  the  subject  at  the  present  time.     The 
prejudice  is  found  to  be  the  greatest  wherever  the  negroes  have 
settled  in  large  numbers.     The  best  explanation  that  I  have  been 
able  to  find  for  this  fact  is  this:  the  greater  the  number  of  colored 
people,  the  greater  is  the  likelihood  that  there  will  be  some  of  them 
who  will  do  things  that  will  arouse  the  white  man's  anger.     The 
white  man  instead  of  visiting  his  wrath  upon  the  individual  who 
arouses  it,  as  he  would  do  if  the  culprit  were  a  whke  man,  nurses 
a  part  of  it  against  the  whole  negro  race.    His  white  brother  sym 
pathizes  with  him,  and  the  negro  race  bears  the  blame. 

34  Map  No.  5  will  picture  the  votes  on  these  three  propositions 
.by  counties. 


MAP  ¥-  OH  I  p-  /S*50 
NECRO    POPULATION 
TOTAL 


MAP    5-    VOTES    OF    CON.  CQ'N...QF  IS50-5/   ON  NLGRO. 
THKEE    MOTIOA/5.     F/Cl/KES    SHOW  '/^TfS   OF  pE  L  ECATrS.  TH05£ 

THOSE 


7£ffe/|S'* 


MOTIONS 

I.  TO 


IWlWtl//?1*"' 
VWH^Tf 


y6  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

The  committee  on  the  State  militia  presented  as 
the  first  section  of  its  report  "That  all  white  male  in 
habitants  shall be  enrolled  in  the  militia."35  Mr. 

Townsend,  the  champion  of  negro  rights,  moved  to 
strike  out  the  word  'white.'  Ordinarily,  this  sort  of 
motion  would  have  precipitated  almost  unending  dis 
cussions,  but,  for  some  unknown  reason,  the  question 
was  not  argued  at  all,  unless  we  consider  the  following 
as  argument: — "Mr. would  not  object  to  the  per 
formance  of  military  duty  by  the  colored  people  of  the 
State,  nor  that  they  should  be  mustered  and  drilled. 
He  would  suggest,  however,  that  the  musters  be  con 
trived  to  take  place  in  cold  weather.  The  reason  was 
obvious."36  This  hint  and  its  setting  plainly  tell  us 
that  the  negro  was  'persona  non  grata'  to  the  white 
men,  who  went  into  the  militia  generally  for  social 
purposes.  When  the  motion  to  strike  out  the  word 
'white'  was  put,  it  was  lost  by  a  vote  of  22  to  62.37  Pre 
viously,  the  negro  had  been  debarred  from  the  militia 
by  legislative  statute,38  but  now  his  enemies  advance 
one  step  further  and  incorporate  the  disability  in  the 
fundamental  law  of  the  State,  which  the  convention  of 
1802  did  not  do. 

We  have  noticed  already  the  struggle  over  re 
ceiving  into  the  convention  the  negro  petitions,  but 
this  was  not  comparable  with  that  waged  over  the  pro 
posal  to  give  the  negro  the  ballot. 

The  committee  on  the  elective  franchise  brought 
in  their  report  December  4.  The  clause  which  they 
had  drafted  conferred  the  privilege  of  voting  only  on 
'white  male  citizens.'  It  was  moved  immediately  by 
Mr.  Woodbury  of  Ashtabula  county  to  strike  out  the 
word  'white,'  for  the  reason  that  negroes  were  made 
amenable  to  the  laws,  and  it  was  no  more  than  right 

35  Debates,  II,  346. 
38  Debates,  I,  452. 

37  Debates,  II,  350,  Dec.  30. 

38  Laws  of  Ohio,  2.     (Passed  Dec.  30,  1803.) 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851  77 

that  they  should  help  make  them.39  The  matter  was  not 
discussed  further  at  this  time  but,  about  two  months 
later,  it  was  again  brought  up  and  Mr.  Townsend,  who 
was  a  member  of  the  committee  on  the  electoral  priv« 
ilege,  stated  that  he  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  pres 
ence  of  the  word  'white,'  and  sustained  his  objection 
on  the  ground  that  such  limitation  was  unjust,  anti 
democratic,  impolitic  and  ambiguous.40  The  speaker 
made  the  mistake  of  demanding  the  franchise  for  the 
negro  as  a  right,  instead  of  asking  for  it  as  a  privilege. 
He  claimed  that  in  this  denial  of  the  right  lay  great  in 
justice.  He  said  it  was  anti-democratic,  because  it  did 
not  conform  to  any  definition  of  democracy  that  he 
had  ever  heard  of:  among  others  to  that  of  Jefferson, 
who  said  that  democracy  consisted  in  doing  "equal  and 
exact  justice  to  all  men."  It  was  impolitic,  as  the  ne 
gro  needed  the  ballot  as  an  inducement  to  strive  to 
make  something  of  himself  and  "if,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  make  it  impossible  for  any  class  to  rise,  if  we  con 
sign  them  to  ignorance  and  want  and  degradation,  we 
ought  to  consider  ourselves  responsible  for  whatever 
invasion  of  our  rights  may  be  the  consequence.  Expe 
rience  has  taught  us  that  ignorance  is  one  of  the  most 
fruitful  sources  of  crime,  and  it  has  therefore  been 
found  to  be  good  policy  to  secure  the  education  of  the 
whole  people  of  this  State  as  a  means  of  preventing 
crime.  But,  besides  giving  them  education,  we  must 
give  them  the  full  benefit  of  the  powerful  stimulus  of 
hope  and  ambition.  We  must  give  them  the  ballot 
on  the  grounds  of  expediency. 

"I  object  to  the  word  'white'  being  inserted  in  this 
clause,  because  it  is  ambiguous.  Some  persons  regard 
ed  as  negroes  by  others  are  whiter  than  many  persons 
absolutely  known  to  be  of  pure  Caucasian  blood 

"Humanity  does  not  consist  in  the  color  of  the 
hair,  or  eyes,  or  skin,  or  where  a  person  may  have  been 

39  Debates,  II,  8. 

40  Debates,  II,  550. 


78  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

born,  or  what  his  origin  or  capacity — these  peculiari 
ties  may  be  changed  indefinitely,  but  a  man  is  a  man 
for  all  that. 

"One  word  more.  It  has  been  said  of  colored  per 
sons  repeatedly,  'This  is  not  their  country.'  The  Cau 
casian  is  not  the  aboriginal  race  here  any  more  than 
the  negro.  Their  right  here  has  the  same  foundation 
as  our  own  and  is  based  on  the  fact  that  every  human 
being  has  a  right  to  the  pursuit  of  his  happiness  and 
to  the  enjoyment  of  all  his  God-given  rights  wherever 
he  pleases,  and  no  government,  here  or  elsewhere,  has 
a  right  to  say  who  shall  or  shall  not  live  in  any  part  of 
the  wide  world.  There  is  but  one  particular  in  which 
we  have  a  better  right  than  they — that  is  'the  right  of 
the  strongest,'  a  right  always  recognized,  I  believe, 
among  robbers  but  not  usually  urged  among  honest 
men."41 

I  have  quoted  at  some  length  from  this  speech 
as  it  embraces  every  argument  advanced  in  favor  of 
giving  the  negroes  suffrage.  The  argument  for  en 
franchisement  on  the  ground  that  the  term  'white'  was 
ambiguous,  was  emphasized  by  several  speakers.  They 
said  that  there  were  many  among  the  colored  people 
of  Ohio  who  were  by  race  and  descent  negroes,  but  who 
in  complexion  were  as  fair  as  their  white  neighbors, 
and  that  judges  of  elections  had  often  had  great  dif 
ficulty  in  deciding  whether  the  applicant  was  actually 
a  white  man,  and  thus  a  legal  voter.  Through  their 
representative,  Mr.  Hunter,  twenty  citizens  of  Ashta- 
bula  county  sent  a  petition  to  the  convention,  asking 
that  some  uniform  method  might  be  determined  upon 
to  assist  these  judges.  Mr.  Hunter  said,  "The  only 
object  of  the  petition  was  to  protest  against  the  ridicu 
lousness  of  such  a  variable,  uncertain  and  whimsical 
method  as  was  now  in  use  for  determining  the  qualifi 
cations  necessary  to  secure  the  elective  franchise."42 

41  Debates,  II,  551-552. 
4a  Debates,  II,  614. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851  79 

The  arguments  of  the  other  side  will  be  found  in 
the  following  quotations  : 

Mr.  Brown,  of  Athens  county,  in  the  southeastern 
part  of  the  State,  said,  "The  negroes  are  considered  a 
degraded  race  among  us,  for  what  reason  it  is  not  my 
purpose  to  inquire;  the  opinion  obtains  however,  and 
we  cannot  by  force  of  public  authority  bring  them  on 
an  equality  with  the  white  race.  Until  there  is  an  en 
tire  social  revolution  in  the  intercourse  between  the 
two  races, — until  the  time  shall  come  when  the  black 
man  can  go  to  your  house  as  a  suitor  for  your  daugh 
ter,  and  ask  and  obtain  her  in  marriage,  and  until  you 
can  welcome  the  issue  of  that  marriage,  and  receive 
with  pride  your  little  grandson,  'William  Cuffy/  or 
some  such  name  that  would  follow,  and  when  a  man 
can  introduce  them  to  his  friends,  and  they  will  be  re 
ceived  into  the  society  of  the  white  race, — until  then 
the  two  races  are  separate  and  distinct.  When  this 
revolution  has  taken  place  in  the  intercourse  between 
the  negro  and  us,  then  will  be  the  proper  time  to  give 
them  the  right  of  suffrage.  To  give  it  now  would  re 
sult  in  serious  inconveniences.  It  would  degrade  la 
bor."43 

Mr.  Kennon,  of  Belmont  county,  in  the  south 
eastern  part  of  the  State,  informed  the  convention 
that  his  constituency  was  "decidely  opposed  to  the  ex 
tension  of  the  right  of  suffrage  to  colored  persons,"44 
and  he  agreed  with  them. 

Mr.  Sawyer  of  Auglaize  county,  said  that  "he 
would  say  here  in  the  presence  of  God  and  of  this  con 
vention  that  he  believed  that  the  adoption  of  this  idea 
of  giving  the  negroes  the  ballot  would  be  the  signal  for 
force,  for  bloodshed,  for  intestine  division  and  perse 
cution  such  as  would  put  an  end  to  the  colored  people 
of  Ohio,  or  drive  them  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
State."45 

43  Debates,  I,  58. 

44  Debates,  I,  459. 

45  Debates,  II,  638. 


8o  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

That  this  statement,  strong  as  it  was,  had  some 
truth  in  it  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  Mr.  Andrews, 
the  leading  exponent  of  the  negro  suffrage  and  a  del 
egate  from  the  Western  Reserve  region,  practically 
acknowledged  it  in  the  following  way :  "It  is  said  that, 
if  you  confer  this  right  upon  the  colored  people,  the 
prejudices  against  them  are  so  strong  in  many  parts 
of  the  State  that  they  could  not  exercise  it.  I  can  hard 
ly  comprehend  such  an  objection  as  this,  but  I  am 
bound  to  believe,  from  the  declarations  of  intelligent 
gentlemen  on  this  floor,  that  there  is  something  in  it. 
But,  sir,  the  people  of  Ohio  are  a  law-abiding  people 
and  when  the  blacks  are  clothed  with  a  constitutional 
right  to  vote,  I  cannot  but  think  it  will  be  respected. 
There  may  be  some  practical  difficulties  at  first,  there 
may  be  uneasiness  and  excitement  in  some  places,  but 
if  good  men  stand  up,  as  they  always  will  stand  up, 
for  the  constitution  and  the  laws,  these  effects  will  be 
transient  and  be  followed  by  a  quiet  exercise  of  the 
rights."46 

But  what  seems  to  have  been  the  coolest  and  most 
rational  statement  of  all  those  who  were  really  against 
negro  suffrage  came  from  Mr.  Nash,  of  Gallia  county, 
on  the  Ohio  river.  He  said,  "I  shall  vote  against  strik 
ing  out  this  word  'white,'  and  for  the  following  reas 
ons  :  First,  I  do  not  believe  it  would  be  in  accordance 
with  public  opinion.  To  make  this  change  would  be  to 
defeat  our  constitution,  whatever  other  merits  it 
might  contain.  Such  being  public  opinion,  we  cannot 
disregard  it  if  we  would.  No  practical  statesman 
would  disregard  the  public  opinion  and  send  forth  a 
constitution  with  its  death  warrant  written  in  it. 
And  secondly,  I  do  not  believe  that  it  would  benefit  the 
very  people  designed  to  be  benefitted.  Such  is  the 
state  of  public  feeling  that  this  right  granted  would 
inevitably  lead  to  the  oppression  of  the  colored  popu 
lation.  The  very  first  election  would  lead  to  difficul- 

40  Debates,  II,  636. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851  81 

ties  and  heart-burnings  between  the  white  and  colored 
population  and  probably  to  open  outrages.  It  would 
necessarily  inflame  the  antipathies  now  existing  be 
tween  the  two  races.  We  may  say  that  these  antipa 
thies  are  wrong,  unchristian;  but  foul  words  will  not 
do  aAvay  with  facts;  this  body  must  deal  Avith  these 
facts — Avould  be  regardless  of  its  duties  by  assuming 
to  disregard  them.  The  colored  people  should  seek 
not  to  mix  in  politics  and  involve  themselves  in  the 
party  strifes  of  the  country.  Let  them  quietly  pursue 
the  policy  of  educating  themselves  and,  by  intelligence 
and  moral  worth,  seek  to  remoAre  prejudices  and  antip 
athies  now  existing,  and  existing  in  strength  sufficient 
to  oppress  them  if  they  were  once  roused  into  passion 
ate  action."47 

This  Avas  the  closing  speech  for  the  negate,  and 
when,  immediately  after  this,  the  motion  was  put  to 
strike  out  the  Avord  "white"  from  the  first  section  of 
the  committee  report  giving  the  ballot  to  all  "white 
male  citizens,"  the  negative  won  by  the  overwhelming 
vote  of  12  to  66.48  This  vote  was  taken  on  Saturday, 
February  8,  1851.  The  folloAving  Monday,  when  the 
convention  met,  ten  members  asked  the  privilege  of 
recording  their  votes  on  the  motion,  and  the  privilege 
being  given,  nine  of  them  voted  nay  and  one  aye  ;49  so 
the  final  vote  on  giving  the  ballot  to  the  colored  man 
was  13  ayes  and  75  nays.50  Every  one  of  the  votes  for 
the  negro  came  from  the  small  Western  EeserA^e.51 

47  Debates,  II,  553. 

48  Debates,  II,  554. 

49  Debates,  II,  556,  560. 

50  The  final  vote  in  the  Convention  of  1802  on  this  same  question 
was  14  for,  ig  against. 

51  One  delegate  from  this  region  dared  to  vote  against  the  col 
ored  man.     He  was  from  Geauga  county.     His  constituents  waited 
many  years,  it  would  seem,  to  show  forth  to  the  world  their  dis 
approval  of  his  act.    By  looking  at  Map  No.  6,  one  may  see  that  six 
teen  years  afterwards,  in  1867,  when  the  State  took  a  popular  vote 
on  whether  they  should  give  the  negro  the  ballot,  this  same  county 
of  Geauga  gave  the  largest  pro-negro  vote  of  any  county  in  the 
whole  State,  in  comparison  with  the  total  vote  cast. 


-82  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

Later  in  the  same  afternoon  session  in  which  the 
convention  gave  this  back-set  to  the  aspirations  of  the 
champions  of  negro  rights,  we  find  Mr.  Taylor,  of 
Erie  county,  Western  Eeserve,  still  nursing  hope.  He 
made  a  motion  to  authorize  the  State  Legislature  to 
"extend  the  suffrage  to  inhabitants  of  the  State  not 
hereby  qualified  as  electors,"  in  case  it  was  deemed 
expedient.  This  motion  also  went  down  before  a  vote 
of  68  to  11.  Thus  the  negroes  were  definitely  excluded 
from  any  participation  in  the  political  life  of  the 
State,  unless  one  would  except  the  privilege  of  being 
merely  counted  among  those  who  were  to  be  repre 
sented  in  both  houses  of  the  Legislature.  The  appor 
tionment  was  made  to  be  dependent  upon  the  "whole 
population."52  Formerly,  under  the  constitution  of 
1802,  they  had  been  excluded,  the  apportionment 
being  based  upon  the  number  of  "white  male  inhabi 
tants."53  The  only  effect  of  the  change  upon  the 
negroes  was  that  their  destiny  was  put  more  fully  than 
ever  in  the  hands  of  their  enemies.  We  have  seen  that 
almost  all  of  the  negroes  lived  in  the  southern  counties 
of  the  State,  and  we  have  seen  that  there  was  the 
greatest  prejudice  against  them  in  this  section.  This 
section  now,  through  the  negroes  being  counted  in  the 
census,  secured  greater  representation  in  the  Legis 
lature  and  therefore  greater  power  over  them. 

The  next  subject  considered  by  the  convention 
was  how  far  negro  education  was  to  be  in  common 
with  that  of  the  whites. 

Before  considering  the  action  of  the  convention, 
it  will  be  helpful  to  glance  at  the  status  of  the  negroes 
educationally  up  to  this  time. 

Prior  to  the  year  1848,  there  had  been  no  legisla 
tive  provision  whatsoever  for  the  education  of  the 
negroes.  There  had  been  many  acts  providing  for  the 
instruction  of  the  "white  youth"  only,  and  one  act, 

62  Ohio  Constitution,  1850-1851,  Art.  XI,  Sec.  i. 
68  Ohio  Constitution,  1802,  Art.  I,  Sec.  2. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851  83. 

that  of  February  10,  1829,  in  express  terms  excluded 
blacks  and  mulattoes  from  the  public  schools.  The 
act  of  February  24, 1848,  provided  for  the  first  time  in 
Ohio  for  the  education  of  colored  children  as  such  and 
directed  the  levy  of  a  tax  for  that  purpose  upon  the 
property  of  colored  persons  alone.  Of  course  this  tax 
yielded  almost  nothing.  This  was  the  faint  beginning 
of  public  education  of  the  negro.  The  act  was  repealed 
in  less  than  a  year  after  its  passage  by  the  Act  of 
February  10,  1849,  which,  although  it  was  more  com 
plete  and  effective  in  its  details,  yet  appropriated  no 
other  funds  for  the  support  of  the  colored  schools, 
save  those  collected  from  the  property  of  colored  per 
sons.54 

This  law  was  in  force  at  the  time  of  the  consti 
tutional  convention.  Many  petitions,  including  those 
on  equal  rights,  which  we  have  previously  considered, 
asked  that  better  provision  be  made  for  the  education 
of  this  class  of  people.  In  response  to  this  sentiment, 
the  committee  on  education  reported  to  the  conven 
tion  the  following  clause  respecting  the  establishment 
of  public  schools :  "The  General  Assembly  shall  make 
such  provision  by  taxation  or  other  means — as  shall 
secure  a  thorough  and  efficient  system  of  common 
schools,  free  to  all  children  in  the  State."55  Im 
mediately  on  the  submitting  of  the  report,  Mr.  Saw 
yer,  the  most  bitter  antagonist  of  all  negro  rights, 
moved  to  insert  the  word  "white"  before  "children," 
thus  making  the  clause  provide  schools,  "free  to  all 
white  children  in  the  State."  The  reason  given  by 
Mr.  Sawyer  for  his  motion  was  that,  aside  from  social 
objections,  the  opening  of  the  public  schools  to  the 
colored  children  would  have  a  tendency  to  encourage 
negro  immigration  to  the  State,  and  thus  Ohio  would 
be  burdened  with  the  support  of  a  still  greater  popula- 

M  Under  the  working  of  this  law  there  were  but  2.2  colored 
schools  and  but  702  scholars  in  the  year  1853  in  the  whole  State 
of  Ohio. — Report  State  Commissioners  of  Common  Schools,  1853. 


84  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

tion  of  impoverished,  if  not  vicious  negroes.55  The 
following  argument  on  the  other  side  was  made  by 
Mr.  Taylor,  of  the  Western  Keserve :  "The  law  of  self- 
preservation  demands  that  we  give  to  all  within  the 
reach  of  our  laws  a  good  moral  and  intellectual  train 
ing,  or  they  will  become  the  pest  of  society,  being 
compelled  to  grow  up  in  vice  and  ignorance.  Shall  we 
then  by  the  adoption  of  this  motion  constitute  a  class 
who  will  become  the  inmates  of  our  poor-houses  and 
the  tenants  of  our  jails?  No.  But  I  am  told  that  the 
negro  belongs  to  a  degraded  and  inferior  race;  so 
much  the  more  reason  for  their  education  and  im 
provement."56 

While  long  speeches  pro  and  con  were  made  on 
this  motion,  strange  to  say,  the  vote  thereon  is  not 
recorded  in  the  minutes.  It  is  probable  that  the 
motion  was  put  and  carried,  judging  from  the  words 
of  a  later  speaker,  Mr.  Bates,  who  said,  "I  must  ex 
press  my  regret  and  astonishment  at  the  vote  given  a 
few  minutes  since,  by  which  the  word  'white'  was 
inserted  in  the  third  section."57  But  it  all  came  to 
naught,  for  soon  after  the  convention  decided  to  omit 
all  of  the  clause  after  the  word  "schools,"57  and  thus 
the  settlement  of  details  was  left  to  the  Legislature. 

The  report  of  the  committee  on  education  had 
been  accompanied  by  a  minority  report.  The  con 
vention  now  proceeded  to  discuss  this  report,  which, 
while  favoring  all  that  was  contained  in  the  majority 
report,  added  a  proviso  to  the  effect  that  "black  and 
mulatto  youth  should  not  attend  the  schools  for  white 
youth  unless  by  common  consent."57 

This  left  the  settlement  of  the  question  to  the 
separate  districts.  A  motion  was  now  made  and  car 
ried  to  recommit  the  whole  subject  to  the  committee 
with  certain  instructions. 

55  Debates,  II,  n. 
68  Debates,  II,  u. 
67  Debates,  II,  18. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851  85 

But  among  a  confused  mass  of  motions  made 
about  this  time,  we  find  one  interesting  one  that  gives 
us  a  good  idea  as  to  how  the  convention  and  the  peo 
ple  of  the  State  stood  on  the  idea  of  having  the  black 
and  white  children  in  the  same  school  house.  This  mo 
tion  was  to  eliminate  completely  the  above  mentioned 
proviso,  thereby  throwing  open  the  public  schools  to 
blacks  and  whites  alike.  The  motion  was  lost  by  a  vote 
27  to  Cl,58  the  voters  lining  up  on  this  very  much  as 
they  had  on  the  two  previous  motions  already  dis 
cussed,  viz,  to  give  the  negro  the  ballot  and  to  en 
roll  him  in  the  militia.  (See  Map  No.  5).  And  the 
explanation  for  the  vote  on  all  three  motions  is  the 
same  and  is  probably  to  be  found  in  the  following- 
statement  made  by  Mr.  Archbold,  of  Monroe  county : 
"As  a  member  of  the  constitutional  convention,  I  am 
convinced  that  public  sentiment  demands  that  the 
children  of  white  parents  should  be  kept  separate  in 
the  common  schools  from  the  children  of  black  peo 
ple,  and  as  a  representative  of  the  people  I  am  bound 
to  defer  to  their  wishes."38 

It  was  not  till  a  few  weeks  before  adjournment 
that  the  convention  took  up  the  second  report  of  the 
committee  and  finally  settled  the  matter  of  education. 
The  clause  that  had  caused  so  much  discussion  was 
now  definitely  fixed,  and  it  provided  simply  for  the  es 
tablishment  and  maintenance  of  an  efficient  system  of 
common  schools,  with  no  mention  of  the  negroes.  The 
question  of  who  should  participate  in  the  privileges  of 
the  schools  was  left  to  the  direction  of  the  Legislature, 
to  settle  as  circumstances  and  public  sentiment  might 
det  ermine. 59- 

The  subject  of  immigration  of  negroes  into  the 
State  was  taken  up  and  discussed  a  little,  but  never 
came  to  a  vote,  as  it  seemed  to  be  the  general  consen 
sus  of  opinion  that  it  was  impossible  to  enforce  any 

'"Debates,  II,  19. 
59  Debates,  II,  699. 


86  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

provision  to  keep  them  out.  The  idea  of  the  State 
giving  financial  aid  to  the  scheme  for  colonizing  the 
negroes  in  Africa  was  discussed.  The  southern  counties 
generally  favored  the  project,  and  the  northern  coun 
ties  opposed  it.  Some  opposed  it  on  the  ground  of 
justice  and  humanity;  others,  especially  northern 
members,  because  the  whole  State  would  be  taxed  for 
the  benefit  of  the  southern  counties.  Many  bitter  ene 
mies  of  the  negro  opposed  it  on  the  ground  that  it 
would  encourage  the  negroes  to  come  into  Ohio  by 
placing  a  premium  on  immigration,  and  the  State 
"would  become  a  great  lazar  house  for  all  runaway 
and  emancipated  negroes  around  us."60  The  motion 
to  give  financial  aid  to  the  movement  was  lost  by  a 
vote  of  26  to  71,  even  Mr.  Sawyer's  name  being  among 
the  nays. 

Having  considered  all  the  proposals  before  the 
convention  in  which  the  negroes  were  concerned,  let 
us  now  take  a  hasty  review  of  what  we  have  found. 
We  have  found  (1)  that  even  the  reception  of  peti 
tions  from,  or  in  behalf  of,  negroes  was  seriously  ob 
jected  to;  (2)  that  there  was  a  very  real  division  of 
the  State  into  a  "North"  and  a  "South"  over  the  negro 
question,  and  that  the  prejudice  against  the  blacks 
seemed  to  be  in  proportion  to  their  number,  being 
much  greater  in  the  southern  counties,  where  the  ne 
gro  population  was  quite  large,  than  in  the  northern, 
where  a  negro  was  to  be  found  just  here  and  there; 
(3)  that  the  negroes  were  debarred  from  enrolling  in 
the  militia  of  the  State  by  a  vote  of  22  to  62;  (4)  that 
they  were  refused  the  right  of  suffrage  by  the  overf 
whelming  vote  of  75  to  13;  (5)  that  they  were  denied 
the  privilege  of  entering  the  white  schools  by  a  vote 
of  26  to  61;  and  (6)  we  have  found  running  through 
the  whole  debate  intense  prejudice  or  antipathy.  As 
my  primary  object  is  to  show  what  have  been  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  people  in  the  past  on 

60  Debates,  II,  598. 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1850-1851  87 

the  negro  question,  I  can  close  this  chapter  in  no  bet 
ter  way  than  to  let  a  member  of  the  convention  him 
self  do  the  interpreting  of  the  actions  of  that  body- 
"What  accounts  for  this  treatment  of  the  negro? 
It  is  the  color  of  his  skin.  Can  you  define  that  color 
precisely?  We  have  heard  of  many  instances  of 
gentlemen  of  very  high  standing  who  have  been  tak 
en  for  persons  of  'color.'  Suppose  some  legal  con 
sequences  had  been  involved  in  the  cases  to  which  I 
allude,  would  the  question  of  'color'  have  been  de 
cided  by  the  eye?  No,  certainly  not.  For  by  'col 
or'  in  these  discussions  we  do  not  mean  color  at  all. 
It  is  something  with  which  the  eye  has  noth 
ing  to  do — optics  are  out  of  the  question.  What  is 
it,  then?  Why,  you  must  get  his  genealogy  from 
the  time  of  the  deluge  and,  if  you  can  discover  one  sin 
gle  cross  with  the  descendants  of  Ham — he  must  stand 
condemned  as  a  person  of  'color,'  for  the  principle  is, 
that  the  mixture  never  runs  out.  Ten  or  ten  thousand 
times  diluted  by  mixtures  with  the  Caucasian  race, 
and  it  is  still  the  same."61 

61  Debates  II,  600. 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

LEGAL  STATUS,  1850-1912. 

After  the  repeal,  or,  rather,  modification  of  the 
Black  Laws1  in  1849,  the  negroes  were  still  under  cer 
tain  legal  disabilities  not  suffered  by  the  whites.  They 
could  not  sit  on  juries  and  therefore  were  tried  by  a 
jury,  not  of  peers,  but  of  white  men  prejudiced  against 
them;  they  could  not  gain  legal  residence  within  the 
State  which  would  entitle  them  to  enter  a  county 
poor-house  or  a  State  charity  institution  of  any  sort ; 
they  could  not  enter  the  public  schools  along  with  the 
white  children,  but  were  given  a  limited  amount  of 
inferior  instruction  all  by  themselves;  and  the  State 
constitution  prohibited  to  them  the  elective  franchise. 

In  the  constitution  framed  by  the  convention  of 
1850-51  and  adopted  by  popular  vote,  we  find  them  de 
barred  from  the  militia  and  again  denied  the  privilege 
of  voting.  While  other  measures  in  regard  to  the  ne 
groes  were  discussed  in  this  convention  and  strong 
hints  given  as  to  what  the  State  Legislature  ought  to 
do  because  its  laws  were  not  of  so  permanent  a  char 
acter,  no  further  discriminations  were  embodied  in 
the  fundamental  law  of  the  State. 

March  14,  1853,  the  Legislature  disposed  of  one 
of  the  questions  which  had  agitated  the  constitution 
al  convention  by  passing  an  act  for  the  better  regula 
tion  of  the  public  schools.2  So  far  as  the  negroes  were 
concerned,  this  was  an  improvement  over  the  law 
made  four  years  before,  but  in  both  laws  their  school 
ing  was  arranged  to  take  place  in  separate  schools 
from  the  whites.  March  18, 1864,  this  law  was  amend 
ed  again,  but  still  the  school  children  were  classified 
on  the  basis  of  color.3 

1  See  Chapter  III. 

2  Ohio  Laws,  II,  441. 

3  Ohio  Laws,  LXI,  35. 


STATUS  SINCE  1850  89 

Several  attempts  were  made  to  have  these  laws 
declared  unconstitutional,  but  the  attempts  failed. 
The  courts  held  that  the  law  was  "not  one  of  exclusion 
but  a  law  of  classification,  providing  for  the  education 
of  all  youths  within  the  prescribed  ages"  but  doing  it 
in  the  most  practical,  and  in  fact  only  feasible,  way, 
that  by  separate  schools  for  blacks  and  whites.4 

In  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  case 
of  Van  Camp  vs.  Board  of  Education  of  Logan,  Ohio, 
in  1859,  the  above-mentioned  law  was  upheld.  But 
what  is  of  far  more  interest  in  this  case  is  the  fact  that 
the  Supreme  Court  now  reversed  all  its  previous  de 
cisions  on  the  matter  of  the  quantity  of  negro  blood 
necessary  to  exclude  the  owner  from  the  white  schools. 
We  have  seen5  that  the  Supreme  Court  had  declared 
in  five  different  cases,6  that  a  person  having  just  a 
shade  less  than  half  negro  blood  in  his  veins  was  more 
a  white  person  than  a  black  and  therefore  was  entitled 
to  vote  and  to  enjoy  all  other  privileges  equally  with 
the  whites.  In  the  last  two  of  these  cases  it  had  been 
decided  by  a  mere  majority  vote.  This  was  in  1842. 
Now  in  1859  we  find  the  Supreme  Court  by  a  vote  of 
three  to  two  deciding  that  "children  of  three-eights 
African  and  five-eighths  white  blood,  but  who  are  dis 
tinctly  colored,  and  generally  treated  and  regarded  as 
colored  children  by  the  community  where  they  reside, 
are  not  as  of  right  entitled  to  admission  into  the  com 
mon  schools,  set  apart  under  the  act  of  1853  for  the 
instruction  of  white  youth."  The  decision  handed 

4  Enos  Van  Camp  vs.  The  Board  of  Education  of  Logan,  Su 
preme  Court,  November,  1859. 

State  vs.  McCann,  XXI,  O.  S.  198 

Lewis  vs.  Board  of  Education,  Cincinnati,   Hamilton  District 
Court,  April  1876. 

5  See  Chapter  ]I. 

6  Polly  Gray  vs.  The  State,  IV  Ohio  R.  353. 
Williams  vs.  School  Directors,  etc.,  Wright  R.  579. 
Lane  vs.  Baker  et  al,  XII  Ohio  R.  237. 

Jeffries  vs.  Ankeny  et  al,  XI  Ohio  R.  372. 
Thacker  vs.  Haivk,  Ib,  376. 


go  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

down  by  Chief  Justice  Peck  is  so  much  along  the  line 
of  this  investigation  that  it  really  deserves  to  be  quot 
ed  almost  in  toto,  especially  as  it  comes  from  so  high 
a  source.  He  said :  "In  determining  what  is  to  be  un 
derstood  by  the  term  'white'  and  'colored,'  as  used 
in  this  act,  (1853)  we  may  look  to  the  state  of  things 
existing  at  the  time,  the  evils  complained  of,  and  the 
remedies  sought  to  be  applied:  For  nearly  two  gen 
erations,  blacks  and  mulattoes  had  been  a  proscribed 
and  degraded  race  in  Ohio.  They  were  debarred  from 
the  elective  franchise  and  prohibited  from  immigra 
tion  and  settlement  within  our  borders,  except  under 
severe  restrictions.  They  were  also  excluded  from  our 
common  schools  and  all  means  of  public  instruction — 
incapacitated  from  serving  upon  juries,  and  denied 
the  privilege  of  testifying  in  cases  where  a  white  per 
son  was  a  party.  It  would  be  strange,  indeed,  if  such 
a  state  of  things  had  not  increased,  in  the  present  gen 
eration,  the  natural  repugnance  of  the  white  race  to 
communion  and  fellowship  with  them. 

"Whether  consistent  with  true  philanthropy  or 
not,  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  in  many  portions,  if 
not  throughout  the  State,  there  was  and  still  is  an  al 
most  invincible  repugnance  to  such  communion  and 
fellowship.  It  is  also  to  be  borne  in  mind,  that  a  class 
had  grown  up  among  us,  which,  though  partly  black 
had  still  a  preponderance  of  white  blood  in  their  veins, 
and  that  the  courts,  influenced  in  some  degree  by  the 
severe  and  somewhat  penal  character  of  the  restric 
tions  as  to  blacks  and  mulattoes,  had  held  that  such 
persons  were  not  only  entitled  to  vote  at  elections, 
and  testify  in  our  courts  of  justice,  but  were  also  ad 
missible  into  the  schools  for  white  children.  It  is 
notorious  that  these  decisions,  especially  the  last,  did 
not  receive  the  hearty  approval  of  the  State  at  large. 
The  prejudice  of  ages  could  not  be  dissipated  by  one 
or  more  judicial  decisions,  and  the  frequent  suits 
brought  to  enforce  such  admission,  evidence  such  feel- 


LEGAL  STATUS  SINCE  1850  91 

ing  on  the  part  of  young  and  old.  These  decisions  in 
regard  to  the  right  of  persons  more  than  half  white  to 
testify,  and  to  attend  the  common  schools,  have  had 
their  day,  and  accomplished  their  purpose,  and  we  do 
not  seek  to  disturb  them. 

"The  plaintiff  admits  that  they  are,  in  fact,  if  not 
in  law,  colored  children.  Our  standard  philologist, 
Webster,  defines  'colored  people'  to  be  'black  people' 
— Africans  or  their  descendants,  mixed  or  unmixed. 
Such  is  also  the  common  understanding  of  the  term. 
A  person  who  has  any  perceptible  admixture  of  Afri 
can  blood,  is  generally  called  a  colored  person.  In 
affixing  the  epithet  'colored,'  we  do  not  ordinarily 
stop  to  estimate  the  prescribed  shade,  whether  light 
or  dark,  though  where  precision  is  desired,  they  are 
sometimes  called  'light  colored,'  or  'dark  colored,'  as 
the  case  may  be.  If  we  look  at  the  evils  the  law  was 
intended  to  remedy,  we  shall  arrive  at  the  same  re 
sult.  One  of  the  evils  undoubtedly  was  the  repug 
nance  felt  by  many  of  the  white  youths  and  their  par 
ents  to  mingling,  socially  and  on  equal  terms,  with 
those  who  had  any  perceptible  admixture  of  African 
blood.  This  feeling  or  prejudice,  if  it  be  one,  had  been 
fostered  by  long  years  of  hostile  legislation  and  social 
exclusion.  The  general  assembly,  legislating  for  the 
people  as  they  were,  rather  than  as,  perhaps,  they 
ought  to  have  been,  while  providing  for  the  education 
and  consequent  ultimate  elevation  of  a  long  degraded 
class,  yielded  for  the  time  to  a  deep-seated  prejudice, 
which  could  not  be  eradicated  suddenly,  if  at  all.  Such 
an  arrangement,  in  the  present  state  of  public  feeling, 
is  far  better  for  both  parties — for  the  colored  youth 
as  well  as  those  entirely  white.  If  those  a  shade  more 
white  than  black  were  to  be  forced  upon  the  white 
youth  against  their  consent,  the  whole  policy  of  the 
law  would  be  defeated.  The  prejudice  and  antago 
nism  of  the  whites  would  be  aroused;  bickerings  and 
contentions  become  the  order  of  the  day,  and  the  mor- 


92  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

al  and  mental  improvement  of  both  classes  retarded. 
It  would  seem  then,  from  this  examination  of  the  law 
of  1853,  and  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was 
passed,  that  the  words  'white'  and  'colored,'  as  used 
in  that  act,  were  both  used  in  the  ordinary  and  com 
mon  acceptation,  and  that  any  other  construction 
would  do  violence  to  the  legislative  intent,  and  per 
petuate  the  very  evils  the  act  was  intended  to  remedy. 
Such  was  also  the  construction  which  the  act  upon  its 
passage  received  in  many  portions,  if  not  throughout 
the  State.  The  colored  population,  whether  more  or 
less  than  mulatto,  affiliated  with  the  blacks.  Schools 
were  organized,  and  a  wholesome  rivalry  inaugurated 
between  the  two  classes."7 

This  classification  law  of  1853  was  again  before 
the  court  in  1876  in  the  case  of  Lewis  vs.  Board  of  Ed 
ucation  of  Cincinnati.  This  action  was  in  the  case  of 
a  colored  boy  who  was  compelled  to  walk  four  miles  in 
order  to  get  to  the  colored  school  to  which  he  was  le 
gally  assigned.  He  went  to  a  white  school  near  to  his 
home  and  tried  to  enter  but  was  refused  admittance. 
His  father  brought  suit  to  compel  his  reception  into 
the  white  school,  but  the  court  held  that  he  would 
have  to  attend  the  colored  school,  as  the  law  of  1853 
was  a  law  of  classification  only  and  was  fair.8 

In  1881  a  similar  case  arose  in  the  United  States 
District  Court  of  Southern  Ohio,  with  a  different  out 
come.  "In  Washington  Township,  Clermont  County, 
Ohio,  there  are  both  white  and  colored  schools.  James 
H.  Vines,  a  colored  boy  sixteen  years  old,  chose  to 
attend  the  white  school,  because  it  was  over  a  mile 
nearer  his  home.  The  teacher  denied  the  boy  en 
trance.  A  suit  for  damages  ensued,  and  the  case 
finally  reached  the  United  States  District  Court. 

7  Van  Camp  vs.  Board  of  Education  of  Logan  County,  Ohio, 
November  Session,  Supreme  Court,  1859. 

8  State  of  Ohio  ex  rel.,  Lewis  vs.  Board  of  Education  of  Cin 
cinnati,  Hamilton  District  Court,  April  Term,  1876. 


LEGAL  STATUS  SINCE  1850  93 

Judge  Baxter  charged  the  jury  that,  as  the  law  now 
stands,  the  colored  boy  and  the  white  boy  are  equal 
and  the  teacher  had  no  right  to  discriminate  between 
them-  If  the  colored  boy  found  it  more  convenient 
to  attend  the  white  school,  no  one  could  interfere 
with  his  choice.  A  verdict  of  fSO.OO  damages  was 
given."9  This  decision  must  have  been  arrived  at  be 
cause  of  a  violation  of  the  14th  Amendment  to  the 
United  States  Constitution,  or  because  the  act  was  in 
violation  of  the  Equal  Eights  Bill  passed  by  Congress ; 
otherwise  it  would  not  have  come  up  before  a  United 
States  Court. 

The  act  of  1853  did  not  make  it  compulsory  on  the 
different  localities  of  the  State  to  provide  separate 
schools  for  the  blacks.  Just  after  the  Civil  War 
there  were  some  small  places  that  saw  fit  for  one  rea 
son  or  another  to  admit  the  colored  people  to  the 
white  schools.  In  the  seventies  both  Toledo  and  Col 
umbus  threw  open  the  white  schools  to  them.  Other 
towns  followed,  and  this  movement  grew  until  1887, 
February  22,  when,  on  the  grounds  of  expediency  and 
economy,  more  than  for  the  purpose  of  giving  justice 
to  the  negroes,  the  law  of  1853  and  its  amendment  of 
1864  were  repealed,  and  the  public  schools  were 
thrown  open  to  whites  and  blacks  alike.10 

This  repeal  act  of  1887  met  with  stubborn  resis 
tance  in  many  quarters  and  even  to  this  day  remains 
a  dead  letter  in  several  towns  of  the  State.  The  fol 
lowing  comments  from  several  places  will  give  a  good 
idea  of  the  reception  of  this  idea  of  equality  in  the 
schools  by  the  people  of  the  State.  John  Hancock,  of 

9  Ohio  State  School  Cimmissioners'  Report,  1881,  138. 

30  The  act  of  1887,  repealing  the  separate  school  system,  also 
repealed  the  following  act,  passed  January  31,  1861 :  "A  person ^  of 
pure  white  blood,  who  intermarries  with  any  negro,  or  person  having 
a  distinct  and  visible  admixture  of  African  blood,  and  any  negro, 
or  person  having  a  distinct  and  visible  admixture  of  African  blood, 
who  intermarries  with  any  person  of  pure  white  blood,  shall  be 
fined  not  more  than  $100,  or  imprisoned  not  more  than  three  months, 
or  both."— Revised  Statutes,  Sec.  6987. 


94  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

Chillicothe,  writing  in  the  Ohio  Educational  Monthly 
of  January,  1888,  says:  "The  abolition  of  colored 
schools  by  the  last  Legislature  has  been  the  cause  of 
great  strife  and  bitterness  in  many  communities — 
strife  and  bitterness  not  likely  to  end  for  many  a  long 
day.  It  was  urged  in  the  discussion  of  the  measure 
that  the  law  providing  for  separate  schools  for  colored 
youth  was  the  last  relic  of  race  prejudice  on  our  stat 
ute  books,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  wiped  out.  Senti- 
mentalism  dictated.  The  black  race  has  not  been  ben- 
efitted,  but  on  the  contrary,  the  old  race  prejudices 
that  slumbred,  and  in  time  were  bound  to  die  out,  or 
at  least  to  become  greatly  ameliorated,  have  been  stirr 
ed  into  fresh  activity  and  virulence."11  A  United  Press 
dispatch  from  Kipley,  Brown  county,  under  date  of 
February  14,  1889,  said:  "A  peculiar  state  of  affairs 
is  brought  to  light  among  the  farming  communities 
in  this  county,  produced  by  the  now  famous  'Arnett 
law.'  Formerly  the  farms  had  numerous  colored  ten 
ants  but  since  the  passage  of  the  Arnett  bill,  which 
made  mixed  schools,  the  colored  tenant  farmer  gradu 
ally  is  being  driven  out.  Whenever  his  lease  upon  the 
land  runs  out  he  is  quietly  informed  by  his  white 
landlord  that  the  latter  has  another  man  for  his  place, 
and  upon  his  applying  to  another  farmer  in  the  same 
district  he  is  certain  to  be  refused.  In  this  manner 
the  white  farmers  gradually,  without  violence  or 
harsh  means,  remove  the  colored  people  from  the  com 
munity,  until  there  is  not  one  left  in  some  of  the  school 
districts  and  the  law  which  was  intended  to  benefit, 
does  positive  injury  to  the  colored  man."12 

"The  white  people  of  Felicity,  Clermont  county, 
Ohio,  kept  colored  children  out  of  the  schools  by  force, 
and  beat  and  maltreated  the  colored  parents,  destroy- 

11  Ohio  Educational  Monthly,  Jan.  1888,  59. 

The  colored  school  in  Chillicthe  has  remained  to  this  day 
practically  as  it  was  before  1887,  and  the  colored  people,  in  the  main, 
seem  to  take  it  as  a  matter  of  course  and  are  satisfied. 

12  Cincinnati  Enquirer,  February  15,  1889. 


LEGAI,  STATUS  SINCE  1850  95 

ed  their  property  in  some  cases,  and  established  a  boy 
cott  against  all  colored  people,  to  drive  them  out.  The 
Republican  party  leaders  are  also  leaders  in  these  out 
rages.  We  find  no  reference  to  these  matters  in  the 
Governor's  message.''13 

"The  constitution  and  the  law  of  Ohio  guarantee 
to  the  colored  children  of  Oxford,  Ohio,  admission  to 
the  public  schools,  but  the  white  citizens  of  that  village 
nullify  that  constitution,  and  deny  the  colored  chil 
dren  their  school  rights Seventy-five  of  the  lead 
ing  citizens  have  banded  together  to  boycott  these 
poor  negro  children — not  to  protect  themselves 
against  the  vote,  the  rule  of  these  negroes — but  to  de 
ny  them  the  opportunity  of  education.  And  yet  the 
people  of  Oxford  would  vote  to  enforce  negro  rule  in 
Louisiana."14 

"Another  serious  outbreak  of  race  prejudice  is 
reported  from  Ohio.  New  Richmond,  a  town  of  3,000 
inhabitants  in  Clermont  County,  has  about  700  white 
school  children  to  300  black.  After  the  repeal  of  the 
'Black  Laws'  two  years  ago,  and  the  consequent  throw 
ing  open  of  the  public  schools  of  the  State  to  children 
of  both  races,  on  equal  terms,  the  negroes  of  New 
Richmond  were  persuaded  to  have  their  children  kept 
in  separate  rooms,  and  thus  virtually  allow  the  old 
line  of  distinction  to  be  maintained.  But  one  negro, 
James  Ringold,  decided  to  insist  upon  his  rights,  and 
sent  his  children  into  a  room  occupied  by  white  chil 
dren.  The  little  negroes  were  abused  and  made  mis 
erable  in  every  way,  and  finally  Ringold  appealed  to 
the  courts  to  protect  him  and  them,  suing  the  Super 
intendent  of  Schools  and  thirteen  prominent  citizens 
for  |5,000  damages.  On  Tuesday  last  the  Circuit 
Court  decided  in  his  favor  giving  him  one  cent  and 

13  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer,  January,  1889. 

"Judge  William  M.  Dickson,  of  Cincinnati,  in  The  Commercial 
Gazette,  January,  1888. 


96  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

costs.  This  showed  the  negroes  generally  that  they 
could  legally  send  their  children  into  the  rooms  occu 
pied  by  the  white  children,  and  they  did  so  on  Friday. 
Great  excitement  resulted  and  so  much  disgust  was 
expressed  that  on  Saturday  the  School  Board  closed 
the  schools  for  the  remaining  three  months  of  the 
school  year,  as  the  only  way  out  of  the  difficulty.  The 
situation  yesterday  is  thus  described  in  a  dispatch  to 
the  Times :  'This  has  been  one  of  the  most  interesting- 
Sundays  the  place  has  ever  known.  The  streets  have 
been  crowded  all  day.  All  other  topics  were  forgot 
ten.  Ministers  counselled  forbearance,  and  wise  heads 
attempted  to  calm  the  impetuous.  Each  side  professes 
to  fear  violence  from  the  other.'  m5 

In  the  town  of  Xenia,  where  the  population  has 
always  been  about  one-third  negro,  owing  partly  to  its 
being  the  location  of  Wilberforce  College,  there  was  a 
hard  struggle  between  the  two  races  soon  after  the 
repeal  of  the  separate  school  law  in  1887.  The  white 
people  insisted  on  keeping  the  separate  schools,  prac 
tically  as  before,  and  they  won  finally.  During  the 
heat  of  the  struggle  a  colored  girl,  urged  on  by  a  color 
ed  lawyer,  went  to  the  white  high  school  to  enroll. 
She  was  refused  but  went  into  the  room  and  defiantly 
sat  down.  Although  consternation  reigned,  they  did 
not  forcibly  eject  her.  Suit  was  then  brought  for  dam 
ages,  and  the  school  board  lost,  but  it  was  not  beaten. 
By  the  use  of  a  little  "gerrymandering"  they  then  dis 
tricted  the  city  so  that  the  main  body  of  colored  chil 
dren  would  fall  in  the  colored  schools,  and  the  main 
body  of  the  white  children  in  the  white  schools.  Of 
course  there  would  be  some  white  children  included 
in  the  black  district  and,  by  making  special  request, 
these  would  be  given  the  privilege  of  going  over  to 
the  white  school.  The  same  held  good  for  the  black 
children  in  the  white  district.  The  result  was  that 

15  New  York  Evening  Post,  April,  1889. 


LEGAL  STATUS  SINCE  1850  97 

no  white  children  attended  the  black  schools  and  but 
a  few  black  children  attended  the  white  schools.16 

We  have  seen  now  the  end  of  the  struggle  for 
equal  school  privileges  for  the  two  races.  The  strug 
gle  for  the  elective  franchise  was  waged  more  fiercely 
but  came  to  its  end  sooner.  This  was  due  not  to  State 
action  but  to  the  action  of  the  United  States.  The 
closing  years  of  the  struggle  are  filled  with  interest. 
We  remember  that  in  the  first  constitution  of  1802 
and  the  second  of  1851,  "Every  white  male"17  was  en 
titled  to  vote.  We  have  seen  that  the  Supreme  Court 
in  1842  declared  that  all  men  nearer  white  than  black, 
or  of  the  grade  between  the  mulatto  and  the  white, 
were,  so  far  as  blood  and  color  were  concerned,  enti 
tled  to  vote  as  "white  male  citizens."18  We  have  also 
seen  this  decision  set  aside  in  1859  by  the  Supreme 
Court.19  And  in  this  same  year,  1859,  the  following 
statute  was  placed  upon  the  statute  book  of  the  State : 
"Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State 
of  Ohio,  That  the  judge  or  judges  of  any  election  held 
under  the  authority  of  any  of  the  laws  of  this  State, 
shall  reject  the  vote  of  any  person  offering  to  vote  at 
such  elections,  and  claiming  to  be  a  white  male  citizen 
of  the  United  States,  whenever  it  shall  appear  to  such 
judge  or  judges  that  the  person  so  offering  to  vote  has 
a  distinct  and  visible  admixture  of  African  blood-"20 

Near  the  close  of  the  war  there  was  quite  an  agi 
tation  over  allowing  the  negroes  to  vote,  possibly  caus 
ed  to  some  extent  by  the  fact  that  many  of  them  had 
gone  to  war  and  fought  for  their  country.  The  Ohio 

16  This  condition  of  affairs  has  continued  and  is   in   existence 
today.    I  received  my  information  about  Xenia  direct  from  a  perfect 
ly   reliable    source    while   personally   investigating   conditions    there. 
I  was  asked  for  good  reasons  not  to  mention  the  name  of  my  in 
formant. 

17  Constitution  of  1851,  Art.  V,  Sec.  I. 

18  Jeffries  vs.  Ankeny,  XI  Ohio  Reports,  372. 
Thacker  vs.  Hawk,  XI  Ohio  Reports,  376. 

19  Fan  Camp  vs.  Logan,  November  Session,  1859. 
w  Ohio  Laws,  LVI,  120. 


98  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

Democratic  State  Convention,  assembled  in  Colum 
bus,  August  24,  1865,  declared  "that  the  effort  now 
being  made  to  confer  the  right  of  suffrage  upon  ne 
groes  was  an  invidious  attempt  to  overthrow  popular 
institutions  by  bringing  the  right  to  vote  into  dis 
grace-"21  It  also  feared  that  if  allowed  to  vote,  the 
negro  would  hold  the  balance  of  power  in  State  poli 
tics  and  would  therefore  be  subject  to  white  dema 
gogues  and  renegades ;  that  the  white  laborer,  by  force 
of  negro  competition,  would  be  reduced  to  the  condi 
tion  of  Russian  serfs  and  "Ohio  would  become  the  ne 
gro  paradise  and  the  white  man's  wilderness." 

April  6,  1867,  the  General  Assembly  decided  to 
put  the  matter  of  negro  suffrage  directly  to  the  people 
for  decision  and  submitted  an  amendment  to  the  State 
constitution  providing  that  "All  male  citizens" 
should  have  the  elective  franchise.  This  was  voted  on 
in  October  of  the  same  year  and  was  rejected  by  the 
large  majority  of  38,353.22  Thirty-two  counties  gave 

21  Pamphlet,  1865 — Negro  Suffrage  and  Equality,  15. 

22  Just  as  a  good  cartoon  often   serves  to  depict  things  more 
clearly  and  vividly  than  much  cold  prose  could  do,  so  the  following  , 
write-up  of  the  above  election  pictures  to  our  minds  the  feeling  that 
held  sway  in  the  minds  of  the  white  voters  of  the  State.    By  its 
exaggeration  and  the  fact  that  the  article  was  so  extensively  used 
at  the  time  by  the  newspapers  of  the  State,  one  is  convinced  that  the 
truth  that  it  clothed  was  real.    The  article  is  headed 

"MR.  NASBY  ASSISTS  IN  THE  OHIO  ELECTION." 

"Feelin  thet  the  time  hed  arrived  which  wuz  to  deside  whether 
7000  degradid  niggers  wuz  to  grind  500000  proud  Caucashunis  into 
the  dust,  I  felt  thet  if  I  shood  fail  in  my  dooty  now,  I  shood  be 
foriver  disgraced.  Accordingly,  I  put  in  the  elecshun  day  at  a 
Dimocratic  town  in  Ohio — the  battle  field — the  place  into  which  I 
made  a  speech  doorin  the  campane. 

"I  arrived  ther  on  the  mornin'  of  the  elecshun,  and  found  thet 
comprehensive  arrangements  hed  bin  made  fur  defeatin  this  most 
nefarus  and  dangerous  proposishun. 

"Paradin  the  streets  az  early  as  7  A.  M.  wuz  a  wagon  containin 
25  virgins  runnin  frum  27  to  41,  and  over  their  heads  wuz  banners 
with  the  inscripshuns :  'Fathers,  save  us  frum  nigger  ekality !  White 
husband  or  Nun.' 

"In  another  wagon  wuz  a  collecshun  of  men  which  hed  bin 


LEGAL  STATUS  SINCE  1850  99 

a  majority  in  favor  of  negro  suffrage,  and  fifty-six 
counties  gave  majorities  against  it.  (See  Map  No.  6.) 

This  expression  of  the  people  plainly  told  their 
representatives  in  the  State  Legislature  what  action 
they  wanted  from  them  in  any  measure  affecting  the 
negroes.  Congress  had  proposed  to  the  States  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment  in  June,  1866,  and  Ohio  had 
ratified  it  in  January,  1867.23  One  year  later,  Janu 
ary,  1868,  the  Legislature,  feeling  that  they  had  made 
a  mistake,  judging  from  the  popular  vote  just  taken 
on  negro  suffrage,  rescinded  the  resolution  of  ratifi 
cation.24 

April  16,  1868,  the  General  Assembly,  in  order  to 
carry  out  more  fully  the  will  of  the  people,  passed  "An 

hired  f  rum  the  railroade  whoose  banners  red :  'Shel  ignerent  niggers 
vote  beside  the  intelligint  white  men?'  and  the  follerin  verse: 

"  'Shel  niggers  black  this  land  possess, 

And  rool  us  w'hites  up  here? 

Oh  no,  my  frends,  we  ruther  guess 

We'll  never  stand  that  ere.' 

"Hangin  over  the  elecshun  polls  wuz  a  peece  uv  muslin  onto 
which  wuz  painted  in  large  letters,  'Caucashuns,  Respeck  yer  Noses 
—the  Nigger  Stinks !'  Then  I  knowed  it  wuz  safe.  That  odor  hez 
never  yet  bin  resisted  by  the  Dimocrasy  and  it  hez  its  influence  on 
Republikins. 

"I  never  saw  sich  enthoosiism,  or  more  indicashuns  of  pride  of 
race.  As  ividence  of  the  deep  feelin  in  the  community  I  state  that 
nine  paupers  in  the  poor  house  demanded  to  be  taken  to  the  polls 
that  they  might  enter  their  protest  agin  bringin  the  niggers  up  to  an 
ekality  with  them.  This  wuz  nine  gain  with  no  offsets  ez  there  wuz 
no  abolitionist  in  the  institooshun.  Two  men  in  the  jail  for  petty 
larceny  wuz,  at  their  request,  taken  out  of  doorance  vile  by  the 
sheriff,  thet  they  might  by  the  ballot  protest  agin  bein  degradid  by 
bein  compelled  when  their  time  wuz  out  to  acknowledge  the  nigger 
ez  their  ekal. 

"One  enthoosiistic  Democrat,  who  cost  us  $5.00  hed  to  be  carried 
to  the  polls.  He  had  commenced  early  at  one  of  the  groceries  and 
had  succumbed  before  votin.  We  carried  the  patriotic  man  to  the 
polls,  put  a  strait  ticket  into  his  ringers,  and  guided  his  hand  to  the 
box.  Ashoorin  him  thet  it  wuz  alright  he  suffered  me  to  hold  his 
hand  out  to  the  judge,  who  took  the  ballot  and  dropped  it  in  the  box, 
'Thank  Hivin!'  sed  he,  'the  nagar  is  not  yit  my  ayquil.' "— Ohio 
State  Journal,  Oct.  21,  1867. 

23  Laws  of  Ohio,  LXIV,  320. 

24  Laws  of  Ohio,  LXV,  280. 


MAP  6        S  HO  WIN?   VOT£  By  C0C/A/TIE5   \*  OCTOBER  1*67 
ON  GIVING   SUFFKACE   TO  NEGRO.    32  COUNTIES    VQT 


MAP7-OHIO-I270 

NEGRO   POPULATION 
TOTAL   63213 


102  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

Act  to  Preserve  the  Purity  of  Elections."25  The  object 
of  the  law  was  to  minimize  the  chances  of  negro  voting, 
by  certain  strong  provisions :  Any  person,  offering  to 
vote,  who  had  the  least  negro  blood  visible,  was  com 
pelled  to  take  an  oath  to  answer  certain  questions,  and 
the  object  of  these  questions  was  to  elicit  the  confes 
sion  that  he  was  a  negro.  If  he  swore  falsely,  he  was 
to  be  imprisoned  in  the  State  penitentiary  for  three  to 
ten  years.  The  judge  of  elections  receiving  the  vote 
was  made  liable  to  six  months  in  the  county  jail,  and 
a  civil  action  might  be  brought  against  him  by  any 
citizen  of  the  county  for  $500.00  damages. 

Such  was  the  sentiment  in  Ohio  when  Congress 
on  February  6,  1869,  presented  to  the  States  for  rat 
ification  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  which  declared 
that  "The  right  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  vote 
shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  the  United  States 
or  by  any  State  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous 
condition  of  servitude."  The  spirit  of  this  amendment 
being  against  the  constant  policy  of  the  State  and  es 
pecially  against  the  popular  vote  on  negro  suffrage 
so  recently  taken,  the  Legislature  on  May  4,  1869,  for 
warded  to  Congress  her  refusal  to  ratify.26  Much 
pressure  was  brought  to  bear  on  the  State  to  have  this 
reconsidered  and,  finally,  when  it  was  certain  that  the 
amendment  would  pass  regardless  of  Ohio's  action, 
the  matter  was  again  taken  up  by  the  Legislature,  and 
it  was  decided  to  ratify,  the  vote  in  the  Senate  stand 
ing  19  for  ratification  and  18  against.27  The  measure 
was  signed  by  the  Speaker  of  the  House  and  the  Pres 
ident  of  the  Senate  January  27,  1870,  and  sent  to 
Congress.  The  Fifteenth  Amendment  soon  went  into 
effect,  and  in  this  way  the  negro  gained  the  ballot  in 
Ohio,  and  the  long  struggle  was  over. 

25  Laws  of  Ohio,  LXV,  97- 

26  Laws  of  Ohio,  LXVI,  424. 

27  Senate  Journal,  LXVI,  44- 


LEGAL  STATUS  SINCE  1850.  103 

A  little  indication  of  how  the  law  went  into  ef 
fect  may  be  gleaned  from  the  following:  "In  April, 
1870,  the  colored  citizens  of  Chillicothe  exercised  for 
the  first  time  their  right  to  the  ballot.  There  was  not 
wanting,  among  the  conservative  citizens  of  the  an 
cient  capital,  many  who  predicted  disturbances  at  the 
polls,  but  the  election  passed  without  even  an  ap 
proach  to  an  'emeute.'  Large  numbers  were  drawn  to 
the  vicinity  of  the  polls  by  the  novelty  of  the  scene, 
and  perhaps,  too,  in  expectation  of  collisions;  but 
nothing  occurred  to  mark  the  day  but  the  sound  good 
sense  shown  by  the  enfranchised  race.  Many  came 
early  to  the  polls,  before  the  white  voters  had  collected 
in  any  numbers,  voted  and  went  their  way.  Those  who 
came  late,  or  remained  at  the  polls,  avoided  all  dem 
onstrations  calculated  to  arouse  the  antipathy  of  their 
opponents.  Among  the  humorous  incidents  of  the 
day,  the  following,  related  of  an  aged  colored  citizen, 
who  presented  himself  at  the  East  Scioto  precinct, 
clothed  with  the  new  dignity,  will  carry  off  the  palm 
for  scenic  and  dramatic  effect :  Depositing  his  ballot 
with  a  solemnity  of  manner  which  clearly  evinced  his 
estimate  of  the  act,  and  hesitating  as  if  he  did  not  con 
sider  the  great  transaction  complete,  he  was  told  to 
give  way  for  the  next  voter.  Looking  anxiously  at  the 
judges  he  inquired:  'Whah's  my  stificate?'  What  do 
you  mean?'  inquired  the  judges.  'Why,  I  want  my 
'stificate  to  show  de  ole  woman  dat  I  done  voted.  She 
'clar  she  won't  bleeve  me  less  I  bring  de  receet.'  "28 

In  1884  an  act  was  passed,  and  this  was  amended 
in  1894,  giving  to  the  negro  full  equal  rights. 

As  the  wording  of  this  is  important,  for  many 
reasons,  but  especially  for  an  understanding  of  the 
way  in  which  it  has  since  been  enforced,  I  quote  quite 
fully  from  it:  "Whereas,  it  is  essential  to  just  gov 
ernment  that  we  recognize  and  protect  all  men  as 
equal  before  the  law,  and  that  a  democratic  form  of 

28  History  of  Ross  and  Highland  Counties,  1880. 


104 


THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 


government  should  mete  out  equal  and  exact  justice 
to  all,  of  whatever  nativity,  race,  color,  or  persuasion, 
religious  or  political;  and  it  being  the  appropriate  ob 
ject  of  legislation  to  enact  great  fundamental  princi 
ples  into  law,  therefore : 

"Section  4426 — 1.  That  all  persons  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  said  State  shall  be  entitled  to  the  full 
and  equal  enjoyment  of  the  accommodations,  advan 
tages,  facilities,  and  privileges  of  inns,  restaurants, 
eating  houses,  barber  shops,  public  conveyances  on 
land  or  water,  theatres  and  all  other  places  of  public 
accommodation  and  amusement,  subject  only  to  the 
conditions  and  limitations  established  by  law,  and  ap 
plicable  alike  to  all  citizens. 

"Section  4426—2.  ( Penalty— Fine,  from  flOO  to 
|500,  and  imprisonment,  from  30  days  to  90  days). 

"Section  4426—3.  That  no  citizen  of  the  State  of 
Ohio,  posessing  all  other  qualifications — shall  be  dis 
qualified  to  serve  as  grand  or  petit  juror  in  any  court 
of  said  State  on  account  of  race  or  color.  (Penalty 
for  officer  disregarding  this  the  same  as  above).29 

So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  find,  no  law  respect 
ing  the  negro  has  since  been  passed,  and  today  the 
laws  of  Ohio  make  absolutely  no  distinction  in  regard 
to  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  white  and  black  citi 
zens  of  the  State. 

28  Revised  Statutes  of  Ohio,  Sec.  4426. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SOCIAL  STATUS,  1850 — 1912. 

Legal  equality  and  social  equality  did  not  go 
hand  in  hand.  There  is  nothing  that  I  have  been  able 
to  find  tending  to  prove  that  the  white  man,  during 
this  period  from  1850  to  1912,  granted  further  legal 
privileges  to  the  black  man  on  account  of  holding  him 
in  higher  esteem.  His  voting  privilege  was  given  him 
by  the  United  States  and  not  by  the  people  of  his  own 
State.  I  think  it  fair  and  correct  to  conclude,  taking 
an  extended  view  of  the  whole  subject  and  especially 
in  view  of  present-day  conditions,  that  the  final  rem 
nants  of  the  Black  Laws  were  repealed  in  1887  for  the 
following  reason :  The  people  of  the  State  were  will- 
in  to  accept  the  theory  of  equality  before  the  law1  ( the 
practise  of  it  they  could  look  out  for  afterwards)  if, 
as  a  compensation,  they  could  secure  internal  peace  in 
politics2  and  freedom  from  reproach  from  outside 
sources  for  mistreatment  of  the  people  in  behalf  of 
whom  so  many  of  their  fellow-countrymen  had  given 
up  their  lives. 

There  is  no  denying  the  fact  that  the  colored  peo 
ple  themselves  improved  much  during  this  period  in 
more  ways  than  one.  This  they  did  for  the  reason  that 
the  door  of  progress  was  thrown  open  to  them  more 
than  ever  before.  Yet  their  real  standing  in  the  white 
man's  innermost  feeling  did  not  improve. 

To  prove  this  statement  so  that  it  may  have  more 
meaning  and  weight  is  the  justification  for  the 
present  chapter.  The  way  in  which  this  feeling  mani 
fested  itself  was  somewhat  different.  In  the  descrip- 

1  Revised  Statutes,  4426. 

2  As  the  negro  was  in  possession  of  the  voting  privilege  and  at 
the  same  time  was  anxious   for  equal  school  privileges  with  the 
whites,  the  promise  of  this  concession  was  a  constant  sop  served  up 
io  him  by  the  political  parties. 


io6  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

tion  of  the  social  status  before  1850  I  pictured  con 
ditions  in  Cincinnati  quite  fully,  since  they  were  typ 
ical  and  at  the  same  time  full  of  interest  because  of 
the  large  number  of  black  residents  there.  In  this 
chapter,  while  I  shall  give  several  incidents  as  evi 
dences  of  prejudice  from  all  sections  of  the  State,  I 
shall  describe  conditions  in  detail  in  two  places  only, 
viz.,  Columbus,  the  capital,  located  in  the  center  of 
the  State,  and  Waverly,  one  of  the  many  small  towns 
of  the  southern  part  of  the  State. 

In  the  Life  of  Thomas  Morris  we  find  the  follow 
ing  incident  recorded:  A  colored  clergyman  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  about  1850  applied  to  the 
judge  of  a  court  in  Brown  county,  having  proper  jur 
isdiction,  for  legal  authority  to  perform  the  marriage 
ceremony.  The  prejudice  of  the  judge  was  so  strong 
against  the  color  of  the  applicant  that,  in  the  exercise 
of  his  authority,  he  peremptorily  refused  to  grant  the 
negro  clergyman  the  license  to  which  he  was  legally 
entitled.  The  matter  was  carried  up  to  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  there  a  mandamus  was  issued  to  compel 
the  lower  court  to  grant  the  license  asked  for.3 

The  following  incident  occurred  in  Cincinnati  in 
1859:  A  mulatto  woman  stepped  upon  the  platform 
of  a  street  car  under  ordinary  circumstances  for  the 
purpose  of  taking  her  seat  in  the  car  as  a  passenger. 
The  conductor  immediately  ordered  her  to  leave  the 
car,  which  she  refused  to  do,  claiming  a  right  to  ride. 
The  conductor  thereupon  forcibly  ejected  her.  She 
brought  action  for  assault  and  battery.  The  railroad 
claimed  in  defense  that  as  she  was  a  person  of  color 
they  had  a  right  to  expel  her  from  the  car,  as  they 

3  B.  F.  Morris,  Life  of  Thomas  Morris,  339. 

The  following  from  the  Portsmouth,  Ohio,  Blade,  January  26, 
1910,  will  be  interesting:  ''William  Kinnon,  colored,  applied  for  a 
license  Saturday  to  marry  Mary  Leonard,  a  white  woman.  Probate 
Judge  Beatty  refused  the  license.  He  says  that,  unless  he  is  com 
pelled  to  by  mandamus  proceedings,  he  will  not  issue  a  license  to  a. 
white  woman  and  colored  man,  or  vice  versa." 


SOCIAL  STATUS  SINCE  1850  107 

were  common  carriers  for  hire.  The  judge,  in  hand 
ing  down  his  decision,  fixing  a  fine  of  f  10.00  and  costs, 
said,  "It  is  not  pretended  that  the  passenger  was  in 
any  way  disorderly,  that  she  refused  to  pay  her  fare, 
that  there  was  any  lack  of  room  for  her  accommoda 
tion,  or  that  there  was  any  objection  to  her  whatsoever 
but  her  complexion.  As  she  appears  upon  the  stand 
she  seems  to  be  about  as  much  of  the  white  as  the 
African  race,  in  fact  a  mulatto,  and  apparently  one  of 
the  better  portion  of  her  class."4 

In  1876  Wilberforce  College,  located  near  Xenia 
and  the  only  colored  institution  of  any  pretentious  in 
the  State,  was  burned  to  the  ground  by  citizens  who 
were  driven  to  desperation  by  having  such  a  drawing- 
card  for  the  immigration  of  colored  people  into  their 
midst.  President  Daniel  Payne,  writing  of  the  calam 
ity  that  had  befallen  the  colored  people,  said,  "Every 
thing  indicated  a  prosperous  future,  when  suddenly 
the  buildings  were  set  on  fire.  The  catastrophe  fell 
upon  us  like  a  clap  of  thunder  in  a  clear  sky.  It  was 
a  time  of  lamentation  for  our  friends,  and  rejoicing 
for  our  enemies.  Said  one  of  the  latter,  'Now  their 
buildings  are  burned,  there  is  no  hope  for  them.'  An 
other  said,  'I  wish  lightning  from  Heaven  would  burn 
down  Wilberforce.'  This  one  supposed  his  impious 
prayer  was  more  than  answered."5 

The  colored  people  of  the  State  of  Ohio  held  a 
convention  in  Chillicothe  August  22,  1873,  and  from 
their  resolutions  the  following  will  help  us  to  see  the 
situation  from  their  point  of  view:  "Resolved,  that 
Republican  constituencies  fail  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  rights  and  political  preferment  should  depend 
upon  merit,  and  not  upon  the  mere  accidents  of  race 
and  color.  If  a  stranger  visiting  Ohio  should  consider 
the  race  of  the  men  appointed  to  office  by  national  au- 

*  Weekly  Law  Gazette,  IV,  359-360. 

0  Historical  Sketches  of  Ohio,  article   on   Higher  Educational 
Institutions,  t>y  Daniel  A.  Payne. 


io8  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

thorities,  or  if  he  should  make  a  tour  of  the  court 
houses,  the  State  House,  the  asylums,  and  other  build 
ings  controlled  by  the  Kepublican  party,  he  would  be 
justified  in  believing  that  there  are  no  colored  men 
in  the  State,  so  rigidly  are  we  excluded  from  anything 
that  might  look  like  an  equality  of  right  in  office- 
holding. 

"Kesolved,  That  we,  the  colored  voters  of  the 
State  of  Ohio,  in  convention  assembled,  do  protest 
against  the  unjust  discrimination  toward  us  by  the 
representatives  of  the  party  whom  we  aid  in  securing 
official  positions. 

"Kesolved,  That  the  colored  voters  of  Ohio  do  not 
consider  themselves  under  eternal  obligations  to  a 
party  which  favors  us  as  a  class,  only  in  proportion 
as  it  is  driven  by  its  own  necessities."6 

The  effect  of  these  resolutions  may  be  seen  in  the 
following  editorial  article  in  The  Columbus  Dispatch 
of  September  8,  1873,  but  two  weeks  after  the  resolu 
tions  were  made :  "Alluding  to  the  nomination  of  the 
colored  preacher,  Poindexter,  for  Representative  to 
the  State  Legislature,  by  the  Republicans  of  Franklin 
county,  the  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer  truthfully  re 
marks:  The  object  the  Franklin  Republicans  had  in 
nominating  Poindexter  is  evidently  accomplished,  so 
far  as  James  himself  is  concerned.  That  object  was  to 
placate  the  colored  element  which  is  clamoring  for 
office.  Mr.  Poindexter,  in  his  joy  at  receiving  a  nomi 
nation,  evidently  forgets  that  his  election  is  out  of  the 
question.  By  and  by  he  will  appreciate  the  thinness 
of  his  honors."7  And  this  must  have  been  true,  judg 
ing  from  the  vote  on  October  14,  when  the  Democratic 
candidate  received  3,684  votes  and  Poindexter,  the 
Republican  candidate,  received  1,794  votes,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  Columbus  was  decidedly  a  Republican 
city.8 

6  Columbus  Dispatch,  August  8  and  23,  1873. 

7  Columbus  Dispatch,  September  8,  1873. 

8  Columbus  Dispatch,  October  15,  1873. 


SOCIAL  STATUS  SINCE  1850  109 

In  the  year  1873  the  Board  of  Education  of  Co 
lumbus  decided  to  admit  the  son  of  the  colored  school 
principal  into  the  white  high  school.    During  the  year 
the  boys  of  the  school  met  to  organize  a  cadet  corps, 
and  the  colored  boy  was  among  them.    When  the  time 
came  for  them  to  go  forward  and  sign  the  roll  of  mem 
bership,  the  colored  boy  stepped  up  also.    This  action 
was  greeted  with  a  storm  of  hisses  and  stamping  on 
the  floor,  indulged  in  by  almost  all  the  boys  present. 
The  colored  boy  signed  his  name  nevertheless  and 
sat  down,  but  the  sensation  that  he  had  stirred  up  did 
not  settle  down  so  soon,  not,  indeed,  until  the  name 
was  erased  from  the  roll,  and  the  white  boys'  feeling  of 
superiority  was  vindicated.     This  feeling  must  have 
been  shared  in  by  their  elders,  judging  from  the  fol 
lowing  in  The  Dispatch  the  next  day  :  "The  colored 
youth  who  was  urged  by  his  less  intelligent  elders  to 
push  himself  forward  as  a  member  of  a  new  organiza 
tion  of  cadets  in  this  city  has  had  the  good  sense  to 
withdraw  his  name.    The  colored  people  are  develop 
ing  little  intelligence  in  endeavoring  to  intrude  them 
selves  into  all  sorts  of  society  where  they  are  unwel 
come  guests,  and  where  evidently  they  labor  under  dis 
tinctions  that  may  be  odious,  but  that  are,  neverthe 
less,  common  to  both  races.    A  colored  organization  of 
cadets  would  permit  no  'white  trash'  in  the  parade, 
and  why  should  the  rule  be  reversed  merely  to  estab 
lish  a  buncombe  political  idea."10 

An  incident  occurred  in  Columbus  in  1873  which 
almost  precipitated  a  clash  between  the  two  races 
and  served  to  bring  out  a  strong  expression  of  race 
prejudice.  A  colored  man  presented  parquet  tickets 
at  the  door  of  the  Atheneum  theater  for  admission. 
The  doorkeeper  told  him  that  it  was  an  inflexible  rule 
of  the  management  not  to  sell  tickets  for  this  part  of 
the  house  to  colored  people,  and  therefore  he  could 


8  Columbus  Dispatch,  October  15,  1873. 
10  Columbus  Dispatch,  January  20,  1874. 


no  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

not  let  him  enter.  He  took  the  ticket  to  the  office, 
had  it  redeemed,  and  offered  the  money  to  the  negro, 
who  refused  it.  The  latter  then  went  away  and  meet 
ing  the  doorkeeper  again  about  the  second  day  after 
this  he  fell  upon  him  and  beat  him  in  a  terrible  man 
ner.  Much  indignation  was  expressed  against  the 
colored  race,  and  the  colored  people  called  a  mass 
meeting  and  appointed  a  committee  to  investigate  the 
whole  matter.  The  newspapers  also  began  a  little  in 
vestigation  of  the  feeling  against  the  blacks,  and  these 
are  some  of  the  things  they  found :  Not  only  were  the 
majority  of  the  white  citizens  in  favor  of  the  black 
people  being  excluded  from  certain  sections  of  the 
theater,  but  their  repugnance  to  the  colored  people 
was  so  strong  that  they  kept  them  out  of  the  white 
schools,  out  of  Trinity  Episcopal  church,  and  colored 
children  were  debarred  from  the  Hannah  Neil  Mis 
sion,  a  large  charitable  institution  for  homeless  waifs. 
The  Dispatch  in  an  editorial  said :  "Universal  equali 
ty  is  a  myth.  There  are  not  only  distinctions  in  race 
and  color,  but  in  politics,  religion,  business  and  so 
ciety,  and  always  will  be.  It  is  a  fact  that  there  is  a 
large  class  of  people  who  will  say  that  the  colored  peo 
ple  ought  to  be  admitted  to  the  parquet  of  a  theatre, 
but  few  of  them  want  to  sit  by  him."11 

An  attempt  was  made  in  the  city  council  Decem 
ber  16  to  pass  an  ordinance  forbidding  managers  to 
exclude  colored  people  from  any  part  of  a  theatre,  but 
it  failed  to  pass  by  a  vote  of  9  to  10.12 

The  colored  people  met  again  December  17  to  hear 
the  report  of  the  committee  appointed  at  their  last 
meeting  to  investigate  the  affair.  The  committee  in 
its  report  took  the  broad  ground  that  the  manager,  in 
order  to  preserve  his  business,  was  compelled  by  pub 
lic  prejudice  to  reserve  a  part  of  the  house  for  white 
people  and  was  therefore  more  deserving  of  pity  than 

n  Columbus  Dispatch,  December  5  and  18,  1873. 
r~  Columbus  Dispatch,  December  16,  1873. 


SOCIAL  STATUS  SINCE  1850  in 

censure.  They  said  that  the  manager  had  told  them 
that  many  of  their  Kepublican  friends  who  pretended 
such  great  interest  in  them  were  among  those  who 
had  expressed  themselves  privately  to  him  as  being  op 
posed  to  the  blacks  sitting  in  the  parquet. 

The  committee  thought  that  it  would  be  wise  for 
colored  men  to  keep  out  of  places  where  they  were  not 
wanted.  "In  conclusion,  your  committee  gives  it  as 
their  opinion  that  while  colored  men's  duty  to  their 
country,  and  to  themselves  and  their  children,  require 
a  manly  resistance,  at  whatever  cost,  to  every  en 
croachment  upon  their  rights  as  citizens,  which  inflict 
real  injury,  such  as  obstructing  their  rights  of  travel 
on  railroads  and  steamboats,  denying  them  suitable 
accommodations  at  places  of  public  entertainment,  or 
in  the  asylums  of  the  State  or  poor-houses  which  are 
sustained  by  public  tax,  it  is  unwise  to  worry  at  an  ex 
clusion  from  amusements."13 

The  report  was  thoroughly  discussed,  condemned 
by  some  and  approved  by  others,  and  in  speeches  on 
the  subject  these  facts  were  brought  out:  1.  The  ne 
groes  were  practising  the  same  thing  that  the  mana 
ger  of  the  theater  was,  in  that  many  of  them  had  bar 
ber  shops  in  which  they  catered  to  the  white  trade  only 
and  refused  to  do  work  for  their  own  race  out  of  fear 
of  losing  the  white  men's  trade.  2.  The  action  of  the 
Hannah  Neil  Mission  in  excluding  colored  children 
was  in  harmony  with  the  view  of  all  the  Protestant 
churches,  and  the  only  way  in  which  they  might  bet 
ter  themselves  in  this  regard  was  to  affiliate  with  the 
Catholic  Church.  3.  Their  being  excluded  from  plac 
es  of  amusement  was  a  very  little  thing  in  comparison 
with  their  being  excluded  so  generally  from  railroad 
cars,  hotels,  schools,  and  charitable  institutions.  These 
were  the  things  to  be  striven  for. 

Having  now  seen  the  ways  in  which  prejudice  as 
serted  itself  in  one  of  the  largest  cities  of  the  State,  let 
"Columbus  Dispatch,  December  18,  1873. 


112  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

us  turn  our  attention  to  one  of  the  smaller  cities  of 
the  southern  part  of  the  State,  and  we  shall  find  a  pic 
ture  different  in  details  only.  We  are  indebted  for  the 
following  description  of  conditions  in  Waverly,  the 
county  seat  of  Pike  county,  to  Henry  Howe,  author  of 

Historical  Collections  of  Ohio : 

"Waverly,  having  a  population  of  2,000,  does  not 
harbor  a  single  negro  within  her  borders.  When  WTa- 
verly  was  still  in  its  swaddling  clothes,  there  was  a 
'yellow  nigger'  named  Love  living  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  town.  He  was  a  low-minded,  impudent,  vicious 
fellow,  very  insulting,  and  made  enemies  on  every 
hand.  His  conduct  finally  became  so  objectionable 
that  a  lot  of  the  better  class  of  citizens  got  together 
one  night,  made  a  descent  upon  his  cabin,  drove  him 
out  and  stoned  him  a  long  way  in  his  flight  toward 
Sharonville.  He  never  dared  to  come  back. 

"There  was  a  splendid  fellow,  a  darkey  named 
Dennis  Hill,  who  settled  at  Piketon  and  established 
a  tanning  business,  who  was  almost  harassed  to  death 
by  the  negro-haters.  He  finally  left  this  section  and 
went  to  Michigan,  where  he  grew  rich. 

"Dr.  William  Blackstone  was  a  strong  exception 
to  the  general  rule.  He  was  a  friend  of  the  negro,  their 
champion,  and  the  prejudiced  whites  accused  the  doc 
tor  of  'encouraging  the  d d  niggers  to  be  impudent 

and  sassy  to  us.'  Opposed  to  Blackstone  was  a  strong 
family  of  Burkes,  and  a  number  of  the  Downings,  who 
thought  that  the  only  correct  way  to  treat  a  negro  was 
to  kill  him.  This  was  their  doctrine,  and  they  pro 
claimed  it,  with  much  bravado,  on  all  occasions. 

"A  lot  of  Virginia  negroes  settled  up  on  Pee  Pee 
creek,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Burkes  and  the 
Downings.  Some  of  them  prospered  nicely,  and  this 
enraged  their  white  neighbors.  Tim  Downing  was  the 
leader  of  the  gang  that  made  almost  constant  war  on 
these  negroes.  Downing's  crowd  got  to  burning  the 


SOCIAL  STATUS  SINCE  1850  113 

hay  and  wheat  of  the  colored  farmers,  harrassing  vlieir 
stock,  interfering  in  their  private  business,  and  doing 
everything  in  their  power  to  make  life  absolutely  mis 
erable  to  the  colored  people. 

"One  night  they  organized  a  big  raid  into  the  col 
ored  settlement,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  'clearing 
out  the  Avhole  nest  of  d d  niggers.'  They  went  ful 
ly  armed,  and  didn't  propose  to  stop  short  of  doing  a 
little  killing  and  burning.  One  of  the  first  cabins  they 
surrounded  was  that  of  an  especially  hated  colored 
man.  They  opened  fire  upon  it,  hoping  to  drive  the 
negro  out.  But  the  darkey, — an  honest,  peaceable  fel 
low, — wasn't  to  be  easily  frightened.  He,  too,  had  a 
gun,  and  taking  a  safe  position  near  one  of  the  win 
dows  of  his  cabin,  he  blazed  away  into  the  darkness 
in  the  direction  from  which  the  shots  had  come.  A 
wild  cry  of  pain  followed  his  shot.  The  buck  shot 
from  his  gun  plunged  into  the  right  leg  of  Tim  Down- 
ing's  brother,  cutting  an  artery.  Downing  fell,  but 
he  was  picked  up  and  carried  to  the  home  of  Bill 
Burke.  The  crowd  abandoned  the  attack  after  Down- 
ing's  fall,  and  followed  him  to  Burke's  house.  There 
Downing  bled  to  death.  A  coroner's  jury  was  empan 
elled,  and  the  gang  of  whites  to  which  Downing  be 
longed  surrounded  the  house  in  which  the  jury  was  in 
session,  and  threatened  it  with  all  sorts  of  vengeance 
if  it  did  not  return  a  verdict  expressing  the  belief  that 
Downing  had  been  murdered  by  the  negro.  But  their 
threats  didn't  procure  the  desired  verdict. 

"The  morning  after  the  fatal  raid,  the  Downings, 
Burkes  and  their  friends,  armed  themselves  and 
marched  to  the  negro's  cabin.  They  lay  in  wait  there 
until  the  darkey's  son,  a  nice  young  fellow,  came  out 
of  the  cabin.  They  opened  fire  on  him,  and  one  of  the 
bullets  struck  him  in  the  head,  fracturing  his  skull. 
When  the  young  man  fell  the  crowd  broke  and  ran. 
The  wounded  negro  lingered  quite  a  long  while,  suf 
fering  most  frightfully,  and  finally  died.  No  one  was 


U4  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

ever  punished  for  this  crime.    After  these  two  trage 
dies  the  negro  moved  away. 

"Tim  Downing  had  a  brother,  Taylor,  living  up 
near  Sharonville,  and  this  man  concluded  that  he  had 
to  have  <an  eye  for  an  eye/  to  avenge  his  brother's 
death.  One  morning,  just  after  Downing's  death,  he 
was  going  through  the  woods  with  his  gun  on  his 
shoulder,  and  came  upon  a  negro  chopping  rails.  He 
told  the  darkey  to  make  his  peace  with  God,  as  he  was 
going  to  kill  him  right  there.  The  darkey  knew  that 
Downing  meant  what  he  said,  and  quick  as  a  squirrel's 
jump  he  made  a  dash  at  Downing  with  his  ax,  striking 
him  full  on  the  side  of  the  face  and  shattering  his  jaw 
in  the  most  frightful  fashion.  Downing  lived,  but  he 
was  horribly  marked  for  life.  The  negro  was  arrested 
and  tried,  but  was  acquitted.  This  only  enraged  the 
white  gang  more,  and  they  made  life  in  this  neighbor 
hood  entirely  too  hot  for  the  negro.  It  was  under 
such  circumstances  as  these  that  the  bitter  anti-negro 
feeling  at  Waver ly  had  its  origin.  .  This  race  hatred 
was  fostered  and  extended  until  even  moderate-think 
ing  people,  on  any  other  subject,  came  to  believe  that 
they  couldn't  stand  the  presence  of  a  negro  in  Waver- 

iy..m4 

We  have  seen  in  this  description  of  the  feeling  in 
Waverly  that  it  was  necessary  to  shed  blood  in  order 
to  appease  this  feeling  of  race  hatred.  There  are  other 
instances  of  the  shedding  of  blood  in  the  State  of  Ohio 
to  satisfy  this  same  feeling.  In  many  cases  have  the 
laws  of  the  State  been  set  at  naught  by  the  people, 
who,  to  punish  the  negro  for  his  crimes,  have  proceed 
ed  to  lynchings  and  riots.  Since  there  is  no  question 
that  white  people  have  committed  crimes  just  as  hein 
ous  before  the  law  and  yet  none  of  that  class,  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  find,  have  been  lynched  in  the 

14  Henry  Howe — Historical  Collections  of  Ohio,  89. 
This  place  to  this  day,  1912,  prides  itself  on  .the  fact  that  no 
negro  is  permitted  to  live  in  the  town. 


SOCIAL  STATUS  SINCE  1850  115 

State,  in  each  one  of  the  following  lynchings  and  riots 
there  will  be  apparent  that  feeling  of  bitterness  which 
is  so  peculiarly  felt  toward  the  negro  by  the  white 
man. 

November  22,  1856,  according  to  N.  W.  Evans  in 
his  History  of  Adams  County,  a  negro  committed  an 
outrage  on  a  white  woman  of  Manchester,  Adams 
county,  while  her  husband  was  absent.  The  negro  was 
promptly  arrested  and  jailed.  Over  a  hundred  of 
the  best  men  of  the  town  mounted  horses,  rode  to  the 
county  seat,  broke  into  the  jail,  took  the  negro  out  and 
across  to  the  Kentucky  shore  of  the  Ohio  river  and 
there  hanged  him.15 

And  in  the  same  county,  January  10,  1894,  a  col 
ored  boy  was  lynched  by  a  mob  of  enraged  citizens  for 
murdering  an  old  couple,  Luther  Rhine  and  wife.16 

At  Galion,  Crawford  county,  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  State,  a  colored  man,  Frank  Fisher,  was  lynch 
ed  May  1,  1882,  in  broad  daylight  for  having  ravished 
a  young  white  girl.  His  body  was  shot  full  of  bullets 
and  left  hanging  by  the  roadside  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  town.17 

October  17,  1894,  there  was  a  riot  at  Washington 
Court  House,  Fayette  county,  and  a  negro  was  lynch 
ed,  in  spite  of  the  militia  sent  to  protect  him.18 

In  New  Richmond,  Clermont  county,  in  1895,  an 
old  gentleman,  who  was  a  banker  and  noted  for  his 
friendship  to  the  colored  people,  stopped  a  negro  on 
the  street  one  day  and  asked  him  why  he  was  not 
working.  The  negro  became  enraged  and  choked  the 
man  to  death  on  the  spot.  The  business  men  of  the 
town  quietly  took  the  negro  and  hung  him  to  a  tree  in 
the  center  of  the  town,  the  whole  affair,  murder,  cap- 

15  History  of  Adams  County — N.  W.  Evans  and  E.  B.  Stivers, 
444- 

18  Ibid,  393- 

17  Cleveland  Leader,  May  2,  1882. 

18  Ohio  State  Journal,  October  18,  1894. 


n6  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

ture,  and  execution,  occupying  less  than  two  hours' 
time.10 

June  4, 1897,  there  occurred  at  Urbana,  the  coun 
ty  seat  of  Champaign  county,  the  lynching  of  Click 
Mitchell  for  assault  on  an  old  woman.  He  had  plead 
ed  guilty  and  had  been  sentenced  by  the  court  to  the 
penitentiary  for  twenty  years,  the  full  limit  of  the 
law.  This  did  not  satisfy  the  people,  and  on  June  2 
a  mob  began  to  assemble,  and  each  attack  on  the  jail 
was  resisted  by  the  local  militia  company.  On  the  3rd 
the  mob  grew  larger,  and  a  rush  on  the  jail  was  follow 
ed  by  a  killing.  Other  militia  came  from  Springfield, 
but  they  were  spirited  away,  and  a  final  rush  on  the 
jail  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  enabled  the  mob  to  se 
cure  its  victim.  He  was  dead  before  he  was  hanged 
to  a  tree  in  the  court  house  yard.20 

The  Puritan  Western  Reserve,  the  stronghold  of 
pro-negro  feeling,  was  the  scene  in  1900  of  the  blood 
iest  riot  over  a  negro  that  the  State  has  ever  witnessed. 
The  negro  had  ravished  a  twelve-year  old  white  girl. 
He  was  captured  by  the  police  and  lodged  in  jail.  A 
mob  soon  formed  and  attacked  the  jail.  The  militia 
was  called  for,  and  the  policemen  of  the  city  stood  to 
their  duty.  The  mob  kept  growing  larger  and  larger, 
and  the  militia  kept  coming  in  until  it  looked  as  if 
real  civil  war  was  at  hand.  Many  attacks  were  made 
on  the  jail,  but  finally  the  negro  was  spirited  away 
and  taken  by  special  train  to  Cleveland,  where  he  was 
lodged  in  jail.  The  trouble  continued  in  Akron  until 
several  lives  were  lost  and  many  persons  were  wound 
ed.21 

While  the  Akron  riot  is  the  bloodiest  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  State,  the  Springfield  riots  of  1904  and 
1900  are  the  most  notorious  for  the  display  of  race 

19  Ohio  State  Journal,  July,  1895. 

20  Columbus  Dispatch,  March  8,  1904. 

21  As  a  result  of  this  bloody  riot,  there  is  intense  bitterness  to 
this  day  in  Akron  between  the  police  and  the  citizens.     The  negro 
is  in  the  Ohio  penitentiary. 


SOCIAL  STATUS  SINCE  1850  n7 

prejudice.  A  negro  on  March  6,  1904,  shot  a  police 
man.  He  was  arrested  and  placed  in  the  county  jail. 
On  Monday  noon,  March  7,  the  policeman  died.  From 
the  time  of  the  shooting,  there  was  talk  of  lynching 
which  grew  decidedly  strong  after  the  death  of  the  po 
liceman.  That  night  the  mob  formed,  took  the  negro 
from  the  jail,  hung  him  to  a  telephone  post  at  the  main 
business  corner  and  then  filled  his  body  with  bullets. 
The  mob,  not  yet  satisfied,  then  proceeded  to  the  main 
negro  district  of  the  city,  the  Levee,  which  was  a  block 
of  tenements  about  three  hudred  feet  long,  and  this 
they  burnt  to  the  ground.  The  Adjutant  General  of 
the  State,  who  had  command  of  the  militia  on  this  oc 
casion,  says  in  his  report :  "It  is  my  belief  that  both 
Police  and  Fire  Departments  of  the  city  were  not  only 
in  sympathy  with  the  intent  of  the  mob  to  burn  this 
district,  but  in  a  measure  aided  the  movement  by  dila 
tory  action."22 

In  less  than  two  years  Springfield  was  again  the 
scene  of  a  race  riot.  February  27,  1906,  a  brakeman 
of  the  Big  Four  railroad  was  shot  by  two  negroes  in 
the  switching  yards  at  Springfield.  The  negroes  were 
arrested  the  same  day  and  confined  in  the  county  jail, 
but  were  shortly  afterward  secretly  removed  to  the 
county  jail  at  Dayton.  Early  in  the  evening  a  mob 
formed  and  threatened  the  jail.  Finding  that  the  ne 
gro  had  been  taken  away,  the  mob  proceeded  to  the 
"Jungles,"  another  negro  district,  where  they  demol 
ished  several  dwellings  and  a  saloon  and  set  fire  to  the 
rest  of  the  buildings,  many  of  which  were  destroyed.23 

We  have  seen  now  the  many  violent  outbreaks  of 
race  prejudice  in  which  the  people  took  the  law  into 
their  own  hands.  Nominally  the  lives  of  negroes  have 
been  under  the  same  protection  of  law  as  those  of  the 

22  Adjutant  General's  Report,  1904,  434. 

23  In  my  opinion,  after  a  personal  investigation  in  1908,  this  town 
will  be  the  scene  of  a  yet  worse  riot  in  the  not  distant  future,  when 
ever  the  negro  oversteps  his  -bounds  again  and  arouses  the  slumber 
ing  enmity  of  his  white  neighbors. 


n8  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

white  people-  Actually  it  has  not  been  so.  We  have 
seen24  that  the  negro  legally  is  privileged  to  enjoy  equal 
rights  with  the  white  man  in  the  way  of  securing  ac 
commodations  at  hotels,  restaurants,  theatres,  and  all 
such  public  places.  We  shall  see  now  how  the  people 
of  the  State  take  this  law  also  into  their  own  hands, 
deny  the  negro  equal  accommodations,  and,  when 
brought  before  the  court,  succeed  in  almost  every  in 
stance  in  escaping  penalty.  The  law  granting  equal 
rights  was  passed  in  1884.  The  following  is  a  brief 
account  of  the  cases  wherein  the  law  was  violated  com 
ing  before  the  courts  since  that  time : 

In  Cincinnati,  March  3,  1887,  a  negro  entered  a 
restaurant  and  asked  the  proprietor  for  his  dinner; 
he  was  refused  and  told  that  colored  people  were 
not  served  there.  He  then  went  to  another  restaurant, 
where  he  was  again  refused  for  the  same  reason  as  at 
the  first.  At  this  second  place,  however,  he  was  told 
that  if  he  insisted  they  would  feed  him,  but  he  would 
have  to  go  into  the  cellar  to  eat.  This  he  refused  to 
do.  He  then  brought  suit  for  damages  against  both 
firms  for  violation  of  the  equal  rights  act,,  and  the 
common  pleas  court  and,  later,  the  circuit  court,  de 
cided  that  there  was  not  sufficient  cause  for  action, 
"as  the  business  of  defendants  was  one  which  existed 
independent  of  permission  of  public  authority,  and 
they  could  supply  or  refuse  to  supply  to  any  person 
they  pleased."25 

Ten  years  later,  1899,  a  negro  brought  suit  against 
the  Fountain  Square  Theatre  company  of  Cincinnati 
for  refusing  to  sell  him  a  ticket  to  the  parquet  section 
of  the  theatre  on  account  of  his  color.  The  lower  court 
allowed  the  negro  $200.00  damages.  The  case  was  ap 
pealed  to  the  circuit  court,  and  the  decision  was  re 
versed,  on  the  technicality  that  the  negro  did  not  show 

24  Chapter  VI. 

2SJohn  W.  Hargo  vs.  Meyers  and  Ludecke;  John  W.  Hargo  vs. 
Plarff  and  Cramer,  Ohio  Circuit  Court  Reports,  IV,  275-276. 


SOCIAL  STATUS  SINCE  1850  II9 

that  the  company  had  instructed  the  ticket  agent  to 
refuse  tickets  to  members  of  his  race.  The  following 
statement  closes  the  decision  of  the  court,  "Whether 
allegation  and  proof  that  the  ticket  agent  was  given 
authority  to  exercise  his  own  discretion  in  selling  or 
refusing  to  sell  tickets  to  persons  applying  therefor 
would  be  sufficient  to  charge  the  principal  with  lia 
bility  for  such  act  as  that  complained  of,  we  do  not  de 
cide."26 

December  19,  1899,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
State  handed  down  an  important  decision  in  the  case 
of  a  negro  who  was  charged  thirty  cents  for  a  drink 
of  liquor  in  a  saloon  of  Akron,  Ohio,  for  which  same 
drink  all  white  men  were  compelled  to  pay  but  fifteen 
cents.  The  case  first  came  up  before  the  common  pleas 
court,  where  it  was  dismissed  on  the  ground  "that 
there  was  no  cause  for  action."  It  was  then  appealed 
to  the  circuit  court,  which  affirmed  the  action  of  the 
lower  court.  Then,  being  carried  to  the  highest  trib 
unal  of  the  State,  the  Supreme  Court,  it  there  met  the 
same  fate.27 

In  1901  another  action  was  before  the  court,  for 
denying  equal  rights  to  the  negro,  and  this  time  the 
discrimination  was  found  in  Cleveland,  the  very  cen 
ter  of  the  Western  Eeserve.  A  negro  was  refused  the 
privilege  of  bowling  in  one  of  the  public  parks.  He 
brought  suit  against  the  owner  of  the  bowling  alley, 
and  the  common  pleas  court  decided  that  "there  was 
no  cause  for  action."  It  was  appealed  to  the  circuit 
court,  and  this  court  referred  it  back  to  the  lower 
court  for  further  consideration.28 

In  the  city  of  Xenia,  in  1906,  we  find  the  son  of  a 
colored  lawyer  entering  a  restaurant  on  purpose  to  be 

28  M.  C.  Anderson  vs.  James  W.  Rawlings,  Ohio  Circuit  Court 
Decisions,  X,  112-113. 

27  Keller  vs.  Koerber  et  al,  Ohio  State  Reports,  UCI,  388-389. 

28 1  was  unable  to  learn  the  final  result. 

Lewis  E.  Johnson  vs.  Humphrey  Pop  Corn  Co.,  Ohio  Circuits 
XXIV,  135-136. 


I2o  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

refused  his  dinner,  in  order  that  his  father  might  have 
a  chance  to  give  the  law  of  1884  one  more  test  before 
the  courts.  He  was  refused,  and  the  father  brought 
suit.  In  the  local  court  he  was  given  f  50.00  damages. 
The  restaurant  owner  carried  the  the  case  to  the  Su 
preme  Court,  which  reversed  the  verdict  of  the  lower 
court  on  the  ground  that  there  had  not  been  sufficient 
harm  done  to  warrant  the  action.29 

When  we  look  back  over  these  court  decisions  and 
see  the  failures  of  the  colored  people  to  get  damages, 
as  provided  in  the  equal  rights  law  of  the  State,  see  the 
amount  of  litigation  necessary,  and  consider  how  un 
able  the  negroes  generally  are  to  bear  the  expense  of 
going  to  law,  there  can  be  but  one  conclusion  arrived 
at;  and  that  is  that  equal  rights  in  Ohio  for  blacks  and 
the  whites  is  a  myth. 

If  we  now  look  back  over  a  period  of  more  than 
a  century  covered  by  this  book  we  must  see  that  there 
has  ever  been  the  strongest  antipathy  manifested  to 
ward  the  colored  people  by  the  white  people  of  the 
State  of  Ohio.  One  must  also  see  that  this  feeling  is 
not  growing  less  as  the  years  go  by.  My  own  belief  is 
that  it  is  increasing  steadily,  especially  during  the 
last  twenty  years.  This  conclusion  is  based  upon  the 
facts  herein  stated,  together  with  the  study  of  present 
day  conditions  as  set  forth  in  Part  II. 

29  The  facts  of  this  case  I  learned  personally  from  the  restaurant 
owner  and  from  the  lips  of  many  blacks  and  whites  in  the  town. 


MAP  fr-OH/O- 

NEGRO 


PART    II. 


PRESENT-DAY  CONDITIONS 


CHAPTER  I — CINCINNATI. 

The  cities  and  towns  of  Ohio  are  in  no  essential 
regard  different  in  their  social  and  industrial  consti 
tution  from  corresponding  types  of  communities  of 
other  great  States  in  the  North.  The  adjustment  of 
the  white  and  negro  elements  in  the  population  varies 
from  place  to  place,  but  the  chief  factor  determining 
the  variance  is  not  latitude  or  longitude  but  the  pro 
portion  of  negroes  in  the  population.  The  word  negro 
is  here  used  synonymously  with  "colored  person,"  as 
is  customary  in  American  speech,  to  designate  blacks, 
mulattoes,  quadroons,  octoroons — all  persons  in  short 
who  have  an  appreciable  trace  of  negro  blood  in  their 
ancestry.  The  investigation  of  which  the  following 
description  is  the  result  was  made  in  the  summers  of 
1908  and  1909.  My  method  was  in  visiting  each  com 
munity  described  to  interview  scores  or  hundreds  of 
persons  of  both  races  and  of  all  walks  of  life.  On  ar 
riving  at  each  place  I  looked  up  and  talked  with  first 
of  all  the  colored  physicians,  lawyers,  preachers  and 
any  other  leading  colored  citizens  who  could  be  found. 
They  were  generally  disposed  to  discuss  affairs  quite 
freely.  I  then  talked  with  negro  laborers  not  neglect 
ing  the  negro  idlers ;  and  then  interrogated  white  peo 
ple  of  all  classes  regarding  their  observations  and 
opinions  of  the  negroes.  The  result  shows  that  in 
Ohio  the  racial  adjustments  are  no  more  determined 
by  law  than  they  are  in  typical  Southern  States. 
Many  statutes  in  the  law  books  are  dead  letters  in 
practice.  The  adjustments  are  the  product  of  social 
custom,  largely  regardless  of  the  law.  The  negroes 
are  permitted  to  vote  it  is  true;  but  other  legal  pro 
visions  intended  to  establish  racial  equality  are  either 
observed  or  ignored  according  as  the  white  element  in 
the  several  communities  may  determine. 

In  Cincinnati  no  colored  man  can  attend  the 


126  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

Ohio  Medical  College,  which  is  a  branch  of  the  Uni 
versity  of  Cincinnati,  an  institution  supported  by 
public  taxation,  nor  can  he  enter  the  Eclectic  Medical 
School.  He  can  procure  medical  education  at  no  in 
stitution  in  the  city.  This  is  not  according  to  law  but 
according  to  public  will-  The  officers  of  the  several 
institutions  may  be  perfectly  willing  to  admit  negroes, 
but  the  general  opposition  of  the  student  bodies  and 
some  members  of  the  faculties  operates  to  their  effect 
ual  exclusion.  If  a  negro  physician  who  has  secured 
training  elsewhere  establishes  himself  for  practice  in 
Cincinnati,  no  matter  what  his  efficiency  may  be,  he 
is  not  allowed  to  operate  in  the  large  City  Hospital, 
a  public  institution.  He  is  debarred  from  the  Seton 
Hospital,  on  West  Sixth  street,  and,  in  fact,  from  all 
hospitals  save  two  small  charity  institutions.  Color 
ed  people,  received  with  reluctance  into  segregated 
wards  in  the  City  Hospital,  are  refused  the  privilege 
of  having  a  physician  of  their  own  race  attend  them."* 
Recently  there  came  up  the  question  of  having 
colored  men  in  the  Health  Department.  The  Board  of 
Public  Service,  which,  of  course,  is  made  up  of  white 
men,  decided  that  it  would  be  unwise,  because  the  col 
ored  sanitary  officers  would  be  compelled  to  call  at  the 
houses  of  white  men  during  the  latter's  absence,  and 
their  wives  would  be  made  subject  to  insult  in  having 
to  accept  orders  from  colored  men. 

There  are  no  negroes  to  be  found  in  the  city  fire 
department,  which  employs  hundreds  of  men,  all  of 
course,  paid  from  public  taxation.  The  reason  given 
for  their  absence  is  that  white  firemen  will  not  work 
with  them,  as  they  would  be  compelled  under  the 
present  plan  of  conducting  the  department  to  eat  and 
sleep  alongside  of  them. 

The  officers  controlling  the  Municipal  Bath 
House  now  forbid  all  colored  people  to  bathe  there. 

4  The  information  in  this  paragraph  was  obtained  from  three 
seemingly  well-informed  colored  physicians. 


CINCINNATI  127 

The  privilege  was  granted  for  a  short  time  recently, 
under  Democratic  administration,  but  the  house  so 
quickly  became  practically  a  colored  institution  that 
the  reform  party  had  to  withdraw  the  privilege. 

All  the  popular  parks,  such  as  Chester,  The  La 
goon  and  Coney  Island,  exclude  the  negroes.  Some 
of  them  have  one  "nigger  day"  each  year,  when  the 
colored  people  are  allowed  to  pass  the  gates  which  are 
forbidden  them  the  rest  of  the  year.  Some  negroes 
are  employed  as  waiters  and  porters  at  Coney  Island, 
a  leading  park,  six  miles  up  the  Ohio  river.  These 
are  compelled  to  ride  on  the  deck  of  the  steamboat 
going  and  coming. 

Hotels,  restaurants,  eating  and  drinking  places, 
almost  universally  are  closed  to  all  people  in  whom 
any  negro  strain  can  be  detected.  A  colored  man  of 
education,  and  of  great  prominence  among  his  people, 
told  me  that  his  wife  wras  white  enough  to  run  the 
gauntlet,  but  that  he  was  not,  and  that  often  when 
they  happened  to  be  down  in  the  city  at  the  noon  hour 
he  would  send  her  into  a  white  restaurant  for  her  din 
ner,  while  he  would  stand  on  the  curb  and  wait  for 
her,  or  perhaps  go  to  some  cheap  place  for  a  "hand 
out,"  which  he  generally  had  to  take  outside  before 
eating-  The  same  man  told  me  that  if  he  wanted  a 
glass  of  beer  he  had  to  go  to  some  out-of-the-way  place 
or  low  "dive"  for  it.  The  Bartenders'  Union  has  pass 
ed  a  resolution  forbidding  its  members  to  wait  on 
colored  persons,  and  they  obey  the  prohibition.  On 
Fifth  street,  between  Central  avenue  and  Broadway, 
fi  distance  of  a  dozen  blocks,  a  colored  man  cannot  en 
ter  a  single  saloon  to  buy  a  drink  or  a  ham  sandwich. 
W.  P.  Dabney,  a  colored  man  of  education  and  of  rec 
ognized  ability  in  music  and  other  arts,  theAssistant 
Paymaster  of  Cincinnati,  handling  tens  of  thousands 
of  dollars  annually,  and  paying  it  out  to  the  Mayor, 
Chief  of  Police,  and  all  other  city  employees,  person 
ally  told  me  of  the  following  experience :  He  and  an- 


128  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

other  prominent  musician  had,  at  much  pains  and 
with  some  financial  risk,  secured  a  famous  pupil  of 
Rubenstein,  an  Italian,  to  give  a  concert  in  Cincinnati. 
After  the  concert  was  over  the  performer  asked  the 
committee  to  go  to  a  saloon  and  have  a  drink  with 
him.  They  all  entered  the  saloon,  the  party  consisting 
of  the  Italian  musician,  another  foreigner,  and  the  col 
ored  man,  Mr.  Dabney.  The  conversation  at  the  mo 
ment  happened  to  be  about  America,  and  the  Italian 
was  congratulating  his  companions  upon  their  privi 
lege  of  living  in  this  land  of  the  free.  They  sat  down 
at  a  table  and  called  for  something  to  drink.  The  bar 
tender  could  see  but  two  at  the  table,  and  those  the 
foreigners.  The  one  real  American,  though  he  was 
the  trusted  employee  of  a  great  city,  was  beneath  the 
notice  of  the  bartender. 

At  the  Sinton  Hotel,  where  Mr.  Taft  made  his 
campaign  headquarters  in  1908,  the  colored  man  is 
not  welcome  even  in  the  lobby.  No  matter  how  prom 
inent  he  is,  if  he  desires  to  see  a  white  man  on  one  of 
the  upper  floors,  he  must  take  the  freight  elevator, 
the  "Jim  Crow"  compartment- 

The  Pullman  company  refuses  to  sell  berths  to 
colored  people  going  South.  Under  stress,  they  will 
offer  to  put  them  in  the  drawing  room,  which  costs 
more  than  they  can  afford  to  pay,  but  which  segregates 
them  from  the  whites.  Trains  leaving  Cincinnati  for 
the  South  have  their  "Jim  Crow'7  coaches,  into  which 
the  colored  people  are  asked  to  go.  If  they  do  not  go 
willingly  they  are  compelled  to  do  so  on  reaching  the 
Kentucky  side  of  the  Ohio  river. 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  refuses  them  either  active  or  asso 
ciate  membership.  Recently  some  young  colored  men 
established  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  on  Walnut  Hills,  a  prominent 
suburb  of  the  city.  The  white  Y.  M.  C.  A.  rose  in 
wrath  at  this  defilement  of  their  name,  and  caused 
the  colored  organization  to  change  its  name  to  the  Y- 
B.(oys)  C.  A. 


CINCINNATI 


129 


The  Ohio  Mechanics'  Institute,  probably  the  larg 
est  school  of  its  kind  in  Ohio,  has  recently  decided  to 
deny  admission  to  negroes. 

In  the  Children's  Home,  on  Ninth  street,  another 
large  public  institution,  colored  children  are  permit 
ted  to  stay  but  twenty-four  hours,  after  which  they 
are  sent  to  the  Colored  Orphans'  Asylum.  The  Au 
tomobile  Club  of  America  some  time  ago  decided  to 
give  orphans  resident  in  cities  where  there  are  branch 
es  of  the  association,  a  free  trip  to  the  country  annu 
ally.  The  Cincinnati  branch  the  first  year  forgot,  as 
they  said,  the  colored  children.  The  next  year,  after  a 
very  heated  public  discussion  of  the  matter,  it  was  de 
cided  that  there  were  not  enough  colored  chauffeurs, 
so  they  could  not  take  them. 

Theatres  universally  exclude  the  negroes  or  at  the 
best  give  them  gallery  seats,  and  these  sometimes  at 
advanced  prices.  The  large  city  work-house,  the  re 
formatories,  city  and  county  prisons,  and  hospitals, 
separate  white  and  black  as  much  as  they  possibly  can. 

Negroes  can  neither  rent  nor  buy  houses  in  re 
spectable  sections  of  the  city  without  paying  exhor- 
bitant  prices.  If  a  negro  does  succeed  in  buying  a 
desirable  piece  of  property,  his  white  neighbors  will 
endeavor  by  all  possible  means  to  get  him  out  of  it. 
Sometimes  they  even  threaten  his  life,  but  more  often 
they  buy  him  out,  generally  paying  him  considerably 
more  than  the  property  cost  him.  This  is  expensive 
for  the  white  men.  Many  negroes  are  taking  advan 
tage  of  this  pride  to  better  their  financial  condition, 
and  many  more  would  follow  the  plan  if  they  had 
the  capital.  The  following  extract  from  a  conversa 
tion  with  a  colored  preacher  in  one  of  the  suburbs  of 
Cincinnati  will  illustrate  the  negro's  attitude  and  the 
methods :  'If  I  had  a  little  money  saved  I  would  make 
the  white  folks  pay  for  their  prejudice.  I  would  have 
some  'poor  white  trash'  buy  a  lot  in  a  fashionable 
neighborhood  for  me,  and  then  I  would  declare  my 


130  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

ownership  and  intention  to  build.  Immediately  I 
would  get  many  offers  to  buy,  and  when  I  could  sell  at 
a  good  profit  I  would  let  it  go,  and  then  I  would  buy 
another  piece  and  so  continue.  I  could  make  a  fine 
living  in  that  way,  far  better  than  I  can  in  the  minis 
try,  but  I  haven't  the  money  to  start  with.' 

In  St.  James  place,  a  fashionable  residence  dis 
trict  of  Cincinnati,  there  lives  a  colored  man  of  much 
prominence,  being  connected  with  a  well  known  pub 
lishing  house.  The  white  neighbors  have  offered  him 
large  inducements  to  sell,  but  he,  not  being  of  the 
type  represented  above  by  the  colored  preacher,  has 
refused  all  overtures  and  insists  upon  his  rights. 

The  colored  man  in  earning  his  living  is  hampered 
on  every  side  by  race  prejudice.  The  labor  unions  as 
a  whole  do  not  want  him  and  will  not  have  him,  and 
their  members  will  not  work  by  his  side.  The  result 
of  this  is  that  he  is  practically  debarred  from  all  me 
chanical  pursuits  requiring  skill.  He  can  join  the  hod 
carriers'  union,  and  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  not 
enough  white  men  can  be  found  to  do  the  work.  The 
bricklayers'  union,  the  painters',  the  carpenters'  the 
lathers',  the  plumbers',  the  barbers',  the  bartenders', 
the  printers'  unions,  and  many  others  refuse  admis 
sion  to  negroes.  The  white  man  cannot  employ  them 
in  any  skilled  work,  if  he  has  so  large  an  undertaking 
that  he  has  to  employ  white  men  with  them.  The 
white  men  will  not  work  with  negroes,  so  if  there  are 
not  enough  colored  people  trained  to  do  the  work, 
the  result  is  that  no  matter  how  free  the  white  employ 
er  himself  is  from  prejudice,  his  hands  are  tied;  he 
must  of  necessity,  generally  speaking,  refuse  to  em 
ploy  the  colored  man  in  any  skilled  capacity.  Many 
colored  men  who  had  come  from  the  South  told  me 
that  there  was  no  such  condition  in  the  South;  that 
if  a  colored  man  became  capable  of  laying  brick  or 
doing  carpentry  work  or  any  other  skilled  work,  he 


CINCINNATI  I3i 

was  as  freely  employed  in  it  by  whites  as  the  white 
laborers  themselves  were. 

Besides  their  being  debarred  from  skilled  labor, 
negroes  are  not  employed  as  stenographers,  bookkeep 
ers  or  offce  men  in  any  capacity  except  that  of  janitor. 
Not  one  is  employed  as  teacher  in  the  public  schools, 
none  are  employed  as  clerks  in  stores  or  factories. 

The  post  office  work  is  open  to  negroes  because  of 
its  being  under  civil  service  rules,  and  they  have 
shown  the  ability  to  get  a  foothold  there.  In  the  Cin 
cinnati  Post  Office  twelve  are  employed  as  clerks  and 
twenty-eight  as  carriers,  making  a  total  of  forty  out 
of  a  grand  total  of  seven  hundred  employees,  or  about 
5  per  cent,  which  is  the  per  cent  of  colored  people  in 
the  city  to  the  total  population-  In  the  police  depart 
ment  there  are  twelve  colored  patrolmen  out  of  a  to 
tal  of  six  hundred  and  ten,  which  is  one-half  their  quo 
ta  according  to  population.  They  get  these  places  as 
policemen  solely  as  the  price  paid  by  the  politicians 
for  the  colored  vote. 

The  learned  professions,  the  law,  the  ministry 
and  medicine,  are  open  to  them,  but  the  few  who  are 
brave  enough  to  attempt  these  find  that  they  can  hard 
ly  make  an  honest  living.  The  white  people,  of  course, 
will  not  employ  them,  and,  strange  to  say,  their  color 
ed  brothers  are  almost  as  much  against  them,  but  for 
different  reasons,  one  of  which  is  jealousy5  and  the 
other  lack  of  confidence.  They  will  not  respect  negro 
advice,  but  will  take  the  white  man's  in  preference, 
having  learned  during  their  days  of  slavery  to  look 
up  to  the  white  man. 

What  are  the  causes  of  this  strong  prejudice  in 
the  city  of  Cincinnati?  In  general  they  are  the  same 
as  are  found  in  other  cities  of  the  State,  and  they  are 
as  follows: 

(1)     Large  numbers  of  ignorant  colored  people 

6  A  very  strong  race  trait,  as  many  of  them  themselves  told  the 
writer  during  the  investigation. 


132  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

are  coining  in  from  the  South,  seeking  the  land  of 
the  free,  where  they  can  have  'their  rights,'  many  of 
whom  mistake  liberty  for  license. 

(2)  When  a  negro  commits  a  crime  the  news 
papers  always  emphasize  his  race  connection  by  such 
headlines  as  "A  Big  Black  Burly  Brute  of  a  Negro" 
does  such  and  such,  and  the  whole  race  gets  a  share 
of  the  blame;  while  if  the  crime  is  committed  by  a 
white  man,  race  is  not  mentioned,  and  the  individual 
gets  the  blame. 

(3)  The  mixing  of  the  lower  classes  of  the  two 
races  causes  jealousy  and  ill  feeling  in  these  very 
classes,  and  much  revulson  of  feeling  and  fear  in  the 
higher  classes. 

(4)  Cincinnati  has  always  catered  to  the  South 
ern  trade  and  still  does;  therefore  she  adopts  much  of 
the  South's  attitude  toward  the  negroes. 

(5)  An  unusually  large  part  of  Cincinnati's 
population  has  been  in  the  South  for  a  time  and  then 
returned  to  the  North.    It  is  almost  the  universal  ob 
servation  that  such  people,  after  their  return,  forever 
think  less  of  the  negro. 

(6)  The  white  people  constantly  complain  of 
not  being  able  to  depend  upon  the  negroes;  they  say 
that  they  are  shiftless,  careless,  and  too  prone  to  ap 
propriate  little  things  belonging  to  other  people. 

(7)  The  negroes  more  and  more  are  entering 
politics  as  negroes,  and  demanding  rewards  for  the 
negroes,  in  the  way  of  positions  and  public  offices. 
In  this  they  are  meeting  with  strong  opposition  and 
much  secret  resentment. 

(8)  The  fact  that  so  many  negroes  appear  in  the 
police  courts  and  prisons  hurts  their  cause  greatly. 
According  to  the  report  of  the  Chief  of  Police  of  Cin 
cinnati  for  the  year  1905,  there  were  12,138  white  peo 
ple  arrested  and  3,107  colored.    According  to  the  cen 
sus  of  1900  there  were  325,000  people  in  the  city  and 
14,482  were  colored.    By  a  little  comparison  of  these 


CINCINNATI  I33 

figures  we  see  that  in  proportion  to  their  respective 
populations  there  were  five  colored  people  arrested  to 
one  white.  If  the  white  people  had  committed  as  many 
criminal  offenses  as  the  colored,  the  police  would  have 
made  the  enormous  number  of  68,345  arrests  that  one 
year.  In  1906  there  were  11,284  arrests  of  white  peo 
ple  and  2,658  of  colored.6  There  were  remaining  in  the 
House  of  Kefuge,  the  city  prison  for  young  people,  on 
December  31,  1907,  238  white  children  and  95  color 
ed.7  From  the  annual  report  of  the  Cincinnati  work 
house  for  1907  we  learn  that  there  were  2,414  white 
prisoners  and  949  colored.  About  the  same  propor 
tion  has  obtained  for  several  years  past.  From 
a  study  of  these  figures  one  must  conclude  that  in  re 
cent  years,  and  in  this  one  city,  at  least,  the  criminal 
ity  of  the  negroes  has  been  fully  five  times  as  great 
.as  that  of  the  whites. 

6  Report  of  Chief  of  Police  for  1906. 

7  Annual  Report  of  House  of  Refuge  for  1907. 


CHAPTER  II. 

DAYTON. 

Dayton  is  a  city  of  approximately  100,000  people 
and  lies  about  sixty  miles  north  of  Cincinnati.  It 
contains  in  round  numbers  5,000  colored  people. 

A  colored  man  by  the  name  of  Thomas  M.  Jones 
told  me  of  the  following  incident  in  which  he  had 
but  lately  figured:  Seeing  in  the  window  of  a  well 
known  clothing  store,  a  pair  of  trousers  that  he  want 
ed,  he  went  in  to  buy  them.  The  clerk  first  told  him 
that  he  couldn't  afford  them,  naming  a  high  price. 
The  colored  man  produced  the  money,  and  then  the 
clerk  said  the  trousers  would  not  fit  him.  When  the 
colored  man  said  that  he  was  willing  to  run  the  risk 
of  their  fitting,  and  that  he  would  not  ask  even  for  the 
privilege  of  trying  them  on,  the  clerk  directly  told  him 
that  he  could  not  sell  him  under  any  consideration, 
as  it  was  an  absolute  rule  of  the  house  to  sell  nothing 
to  negroes. 

In  all  of  my  investigations  of  conditions  through 
out  Ohio,  I  had  found  nothing  quite  so  radical  as  this, 
so  I  determined  to  verify  it  beyond  a  doubt-  I  went  to 
the  store,  and  from  one  of  the  men  connected  with  it 
got  the  following  statements :  "We  do  not  sell  to  col 
ored  people  at  all  and  have  not  done  so  since  we  began 
business  three  years  ago.  We  have  freely  advertised 
the  fact  and  find  it  good  business  policy  to  do  so.  You 
know  yourself  that  you  wouldn't  want  to  try  on  a  suit 
after  a  dirty  nigger  had  tried  it  on,  any  more  than  you 
would  want  to  get  into  a  barber's  chair  after  a  nigger 
had  just  been  shaved  in  it.  We  haven't  anything 
against  the  colored  people  and  in  fact  employ  one  of 
them  as  janitor,  but  business  is  business." 

This  store,  with  this  policy  as  one  of  its  most  ad 
vertised  features,  has  prospered,  until  today  it  is 
about  the  leading  clothing  store  of  the  city.  And  this 


DAYTON  I35 

is  not  the  only  store  that  is  concerned  with  the  color  of 
its  customers.  There  is  a  ladies'  cloak  store  that 
draws  the  line  sharply  at  colored  folk.  A  few 
years  ago  the  city  entertained,  or  rather  the  colored 
people  held,  a  large  convention,  and  there  were  hun 
dreds  of  colored  delegates  present  from  many  States. 
One  of  these,  a  woman,  tried  to  buy  a  cloak  in  the 
above  mentioned  establishment  and  was  refused.  She 
wrote  a  long  letter  inprotest,  which  was  published  in 
The  Dayton  Journal.  It  received  scant  notice,  except 
from  the  colored  people  themselves. 

As  another  instance  of  what  is  constantly  oc 
curring,  a  colored  man  went  into  a  drug-store  to  buy 
a  drink  at  the  soda  fountain  and  was  told  that  he 
would  be  served  only  on  condition  that  he  would  go 
out  on  the  side-walk  to  drink  it.  The  narrator  of  this 
incident  remarked  that  this  was  his  introduction  to 
the  "equal  rights'7  of  the  North..  The  event  occurred 
soon  after  his  arrival  from  the  South,  where  he  had 
heard  much  sentiment  about  the  land  "where  the 
nigga  is  sure  enough  a  man."  After  his  introduction 
to  the  realities  of  the  way  the  Ohio  white  man  feels 
towards  his  dark-skinned  brother,  he  gets  acquainted 
rapidly.  A  white  man  had  bought  a  bottle  of  beer  at 
a  saloon  and  later  sent  the  bottle  back  by  this  colored 
man  for  redemption.  The  saloon-keeper  refused  to 
receive  it  from  his  hands-  At  another  time  in  the 
same  saloon  he  tried  to  buy  a  loaf  of  bread,  but  was 
refused.  He  went  into  another  saloon  and  asked  for 
a  glass  of  beer;  no  one  heard  him;  he  asked  again; 
every  one  in  the  place  looked  at  him,  but  said  nothing. 
Finally  he  had  to  get  up  and  walk  out,  "feeling  like 
a  whipped  dog,"  as  he  expressed  it.  At  another  time 
he  went  to  a  soda-fountain  and  asked  for  a  drink. 
They  "did  not  have  any"  was  the  answer,  although  a 
white  man  was  sitting  at  the  counter  drinking.  Again 
he  and  another  colored  man  went  into  a  small  res 
taurant  on  the  west  side  of  Dayton  and  ordered  a 


136  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

lunch,  including  berry  pie.  The  woman  who  owned 
the  place  got  the  lunch  and  started  to  do  it  up  in  pa 
per — the  dripping  pie  and  all.  They  told  her  that  they 
wanted  to  eat  it  there.  The  woman  resentfully  told 
them  she  did  not  serve  colored  people  in  her  restau 
rant.  They  then  got  up  and  started  out  without  the 
lunch.  The  woman  called  her  husband  and  both  tried 
to  compel  the  negroes  to  pay  for  the  lunch,  on  the  plea 
that  they  had  ordered  it  and  knew  that  they  could  not 
expect  to  eat  it  in  a  white  restaurant. 

Events  similar  to  the  above  are  commonplace  in 
the  lives  of  negroes  of  Dayton  and  are  the  portion  of 
all  classes  of  them.  The  colored  man  who  went 
through  these  particular  experiences  was  a  hardwork 
ing  man,  who  wanted  to  do  right  and  to  be  well 
thought  of,  as  his  employer  informed  me;  yet,  as  he 
said,  if  he  wanted  anything  to  eat  or  drink,  he  had  to 
go  to  some  low-down  place  for  it,  or  go  without  it. 

Hotels,  restaurants,  soda-fountain  establish 
ments,  saloons  and  all  places  of  this  nature  are  closed 
to  the  negro,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  State  law 
forbids  this  distinction.  The  woman  managing  the 
dining-room  in  the  Johnston  department  store,  for 
example,  told  me  that  she  had  had  but  one  colored 
woman  come  in  to  be  served-  Immediately  upon 
her  entrance,  there  was  an  uproar  among  the  white 
waitresses  and  the  customers.  The  manager  stepped 
up  and  told  her  that  she  could  not  serve  her.  The 
woman  thereupon  left  and  no  more  was  ever  heard 
from  her. 

In  all  kinds  of  stores  of  the  better  grade  negroes 
are  treated  in  such  a  way  as  plainly  to  show  them  that 
their  custom  is  not  wanted.  Even  when  a  negro  goes 
to  market  to  buy,  he  does  not  get  his  turn,  but  has  to 
wait  till  all  white  customers  are  waited  on.  When  he 
goes  to  the  theater,  he  can  as  in  Cincinnati  buy  a 
seat  only  in  certain  sections  of  the  house,  generally  in 
the  gallery,  or  "nigger  heaven,"  as  it  is  sometimes 


DAYTON  I37 

Called.  When  he  happens  to  go  into  one  of  the  white 
churches  his  treatment  is  against  all  teachings  of  the 
Christian  religion. 

It  is  almost  impossible  for  him  to  rent  or  to  buy 
a  house  in  a  desirable  section  of  the  city.  He  must  go 
to  the  west  side  where  the  negroes  are  colonized. 
Recently  a  colored  man  succeeded  in  buying  a  home 
in  one  of  the  white  wards.  He  woke  up  a  few  morn 
ings  later  to  find  a  note  on  his  door,  warning  him 
to  leave  within  five  days.  He  appealed  to  the  authori 
ties  for  protection  and,  as  he  was  a  colored  man  of  un 
usual  character,  the  protection  was  granted,  and  he 
held  his  home. 

Let  us  now  look  at  the  "bread  and  butter"  prob 
lems  of  the  colored  man's  life  in  this  city  of  Dayton, 
with  its  5,000  negro  population.  The  labor  unions  do 
not  admit  him  to  membership,  except  in  very  rare 
instances,  and  this  fact  cuts  him  off  from  engaging 
in  the  more  profitable  occupations.  In  1886  the  brick 
layers'  union  in  Dayton  struck,  demanding  higher 
wages.  There  were  many  colored  brick-layers  in  the 
city  at  that  time,  and  the  union,  fearing  that  they 
would  step  into  the  breach  and  do  the  work,  invited 
them  to  join.  They  accepted  the  invitation,  and  the 
strike  was  won  in  consequence.  But  when  the  em 
ployers  called  the  union  back  to  work,  they  would  not 
employ  the  colored  members,  on  the  ground  that  they 
had  deserted  the  employers  in  the  strike.  The  colored 
people  asked  the  union  to  stand  back  of  them  in  de 
manding  work-  This  the  union  refused  to  do,  saying 
that  they  could  not  afford  another  strike.  The  colored 
men  were  thus  forced  out  of  the  union. 

At  the  National  Cash  Register  Company's  plant, 
about  the  year  1896,  two  negroes  were  taken  into  the 
truckers'  union.  Soon  afterward  they  were  discharged 
by  the  company  for  no  good  reason,  but  the  union  did 
not  stand  out  for  their  reinstatement,  as  they  would 
have  done  had  they  been  white  men.  As  a  result  of 


138  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

these  two  incidents,  the  negroes  and  the  labor  unions 
have  parted  company,  and  the  colored  men  are  cut  out 
of  all  skilled  trades.  In  the  factories,  they  get  noth 
ing  to  do,  except  the  most  menial  work  and  the  janitor- 
ships.  Even  the  janitor's  jobs  were  taken  away  from 
300  of  them  recently  by  the  National  Cash  Rigister 
Company.  Various  reasons  were  given  for  the  whole 
sale  discharge.  The  main  reason  advanced  by  the 
company  was  that  they  desired  to  have  American  farm 
boys  start  in  at  the  bottom  and  work  up.  Negroes 
could  not  do  this,  because  the  white  employees  would 
not  work  beside  them  in  any  higher  capacity  than  jan 
itor.  As  the  negroes  themselves  saw  it,  the 
white  people,  from  the  president  on  down  to  the  low 
est  employee,  did  not  want  to  have  them  near,  even  in 
the  capacity  of  janitor,  and  hence  they  were  discharg 
ed. 

No  colored  person  is  employed  to  teach  in  the 
public  schools.  There  is  one  colored  policeman,  and 
by  accident  one  colored  man  got  into  the  fire  depart 
ment  recently.  The  Democratic  mayor  having  died, 
a  Republican,  who  was  president  of  the  city  council, 
became  the  acting  mayor.  As  a  solace  to  the  long-suf 
fering  negroes  who  had  voted  the  Republican  ticket  so 
long  without  any  spoils,  he  put  one  of  their  number 
into  the  fire  department.  Immediately  there  was  re 
bellion,  as  no  fireman  would  work  beside  him.  The 
matter  was  finally  settled  by  making  the  negro  the 
driver  of  the  chiefs  buggy. 

As  colored  men  almost  never  appear  as  clerks  or 
stenographers,  and  as  they  are  excluded  by  the  labor 
unions  from  building  trades,  it  is  plain  that  they  must 
get  their  living  from  doing  odd  jobs,  from  performing 
work  that  their  white  brothers  feel  themselves  above, 
or  they  must  get  it  from  that  one  other  source — steal 
ing.  What  little  work  they  do  get,  they  must  do  at  less 
pay  than  that  given  white  men  for  the  same  work; 
and  yet  when  they  go  to  buy  things  at  the  white  men's. 


DAYTON  139 

grocery,  they  have  to  pay  as  much  as,  and  in  not  a  few 
cases  more  than,  the  white  laborers. 

One  conclusion  must  be  drawn  from  all  this  infor 
mation,  and  that  is  that  the  negroes  in  this  city  are 
surrounded  by  strong  prejudice.  I  talked  with  many 
old  negroes  who  had  been  in  the  town  since  the  Civil 
War,  and  it  was  the  universal  opinion  of  these  men 
that  the  prejudice  has  been  growing  stronger  every 
year.  For  a  few  years  after  the  war,  they  could  go  into 
a  hotel  or  into  any  public  place  and  buy  what  they  had 
the  money  to  pay  for ;  but  for  a  long  time  now  that  has 
been  denied  them.  During  the  last  five  to  ten  years, 
the  growth  of  the  feeling  against  them  has  been  amaz 
ing,  as  the  white  people  themselves  admit. 

The  opinion  of  the  negroes  as  to  the  cause  for  this 
increase  of  prejudice,  was  one  that  I  had  not  heard  in 
any  other  city,  and  yet  in  this  city,  it  was  proclaimed 
by  practically  all  the  colored  people,  especially  by  the 
older  generation-  It  was  this:  The  "old-line  white 
families,"  meaning  the  cultured  families  of  long  stand 
ing,  were  rapidly  dying  out,  and  in  their  place  were 
rising  the  newly-rich  and  uncultured  families  who 
were  ready  to  take  advantage  of  all  artificial  props  to 
uphold  their  importance.  To  the  negroes  they  could 
show  no  mercy. 

As  the  white  people  of  Dayton  viewed  the  matter, 
the  cause  of  the  prejudice  was  very  different.  They 
said  that  the  old-fashioned  negroes  who  "knew  their 
place"  were  all  gone  and  that  the  new  generation  was 
impudent  and  vicious.  Especially  was  this  true  of 
the  negroes  just  arrived  from  the  South.  The  white 
people  claimed  that  instead  of  an  improvement  being 
noticeable  in  the  negro  he  was  actually  getting  worse 
in  every  way. 

From  these  two  explanations  of  the  cause  of  race 
prejudice  in  this  city,  it  can  be  easily  seen  how  wide 
apart  the  viewpoints  of  the  two  races  are. 
This  description  of  Dayton  may  well  close  by  giving 


140  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

the  comments  of  two  aged  colored  men  on  the  question 
of  the  improvement  of  the  colored  race.  One  of  these 
men  had  worked  for  Jefferson  Davis  in  Richmond  dur 
ing  the  war.  When  I  told  him  that  the  white  people 
of  Dayton  thought  his  race  had  not  improved  since  the 
war,  he  answered  with  this  homely  illustration :  "Then 
it  is  the  white  people's  fault.  The  negro  is  like  an  oys 
ter  :  if  you  keep  knocking  it  or  showing  bad  feeling  to 
ward  it,  it  will  remain  closed,  but  throw  some  salt  and 
corn  meal  to  it  and  leave  it  alone  and  then  it  will  come 
out." 

The  other  colored  man  who  expressed  himself  on 
the  question  of  race  progress  was  the  janitor  of  the 
Dayton  postoffice.  He  said,  "The  white  people  fail  to 
remember  that  the  negro  is  laboring  under  an  obstacle 
that  the  white  race  never  had  to  encounter.  He  is  sur 
rounded  on  all  sides  by  a  race  much  more  numerous, 
by  a  race  which  has  the  wealth  of  the  land  in  its  grasp, 
but  ten  times  worst  of  all,  by  a  race  that  in  its  actions 
every  day  proclaims  to  him  that  it  regards  him  as  one 
white  man  expressed  it :  'This  is  the  way  I  class  the 
nigger  among  the  races — (1)  the  white  man,  (2)  the 
Mongolian,  (3)  the  Japanese,  (4)  the  Chinaman,  (5) 
the  dog,  and  (6)  and  last,  the  nigger.'  " 


CHAPTER  III. 

SPRINGFIELD. 

Springfield  is  a  city  of  40,000  people,  located 
about  twenty  miles  from  Dayton-  Its  treatment  of  the 
negroes  is  practically  the  same  even  in  details  as  that 
in  Dayton;  the  only  difference,  if  any,  being  that  the 
feeling  is  more  intense  against  them  in  Springfield. 
Here  they  are  denied  entertainment  in  the  hotels, 
forbidden  to  eat  in  the  white  man's  restaurant,  refused 
service  at  the  white  man's  soda  fountain  and  saloon, 
barred  from  the  amusement  houses. 

The  negroes'  manner  of  making  a  living  is  the 
same  as  that  found  in  Dayton.  It  is  a  bare  bread  and 
butter  existence  obtained  from  odd  jobs  and  hard,  dis 
agreeable  labor.  Here  again  they  are  denied  admis 
sion  to  the  carpenters'  union,  the  cigar  makers'  union, 
the  printers'  union,  the  molders'  union,  and  in  fact,  all 
unions  except  the  bricklayers'.  This  last  named  union 
admits  a  few  of  them.  The  secretary  of  the  association 
of  labor  unions  of  this  city  told  me  that  the  prejudice 
against  them  in  the  unions  was  due  to  natural  repug 
nance,  and  also  to  the  fact  that  they  had  engaged  as 
strike-breakers.  He  also  informed  me  that  there  was 
no  law  in  any  labor  union  constitution  against  their 
admission,  but  that  it  was  left  to  the  local  organiza 
tion  to  admit  whom  it  pleased. 

Springfield  has  the  reputation  of  cherishing  the 
most  bitter  hate  of  the  negro  which  is  to  be  found 
among  the  cities  of  the  North.  This  reputation  is  due 
to  two  race  riots  (1904  and  1906 )/  In  the  first  of 
these  riots  a  negro  was  hanged  upon  a  telephone  pole 
and  shot  to  pieces,  after  which  the  negro  section  of  the 
city  was  set  on  fire.  In  the  second  riot,  the  lives  of  the 
two  negro  criminals  wanted  by  the  mob  were  saved  by 

1  Described  in  a  preceding  chapter. 


142  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

their  being  hurried  out  of  the  city  by  the  police.  The 
mob  then  turned  its  hatred  against  the  negro  section 
of  the  city,  and  for  the  second  time  reduced  a  part  of  it 
to  ashes.  The  causes,  and  especially  the  results,  of 
these  riots  constitute  the  main  item  of  interest  that 
Springfield  offers  in  this  study  of  race  prejudice  in 
Ohio. 

One  of  the  main  causes  given  by  the  white  people 
of  the  city  was  the  impudence  and  insolence  of  the  ne 
groes  for  some  time  before  the  riots.  This  was  man 
ifested  in  such  ways  as  bumping  against  white  people 
on  the  streets  and  crowding  in  on  them  in  street-cars. 
Another  cause  of  the  ill-feeling  against  them,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  a  cause  of  their  insolence,  lay  in  the 
fact  that  the  colored  voters  held  the  balance  of  power 
in  city  politics,  which  caused  the  police  judge  to  favor 
them  in  all  possible  ways.  The  number  of  insolent  ne 
groes  had  been  increased  very  much  a  few  years  before 
by  immigration  from  North  and  South  Carolina. 
These  negroes  are  coming  into  all  parts  of  Ohio  in 
large  numbers,  and  their  coming  is  welcome  neither  to 
the  whites  nor  to  the  old  negroes  who  have  lived  long 
enough  in  the  State  to  learn  "their  place."  These 
native  negroes  know  full  well  that,  as  things  stand, 
the  whole  race  must  suffer  for  the  wrongs  of  the  few, 
that  the  white  man  as  a  rule  sees  no  difference  between 
the  worst  negro  and  all  negroes.  When  one  of  these 
South  Carolina  negroes  killed  a  white  man,  the  whites 
were  not  satisfied  with  his  individual  punishment,  but 
the  whole  negro  population  had  to  be  burnt  out  of 
house  and  home.  So  Springfield  suffered  a  riot  requir 
ing  the  presence  of  State  troops  for  several  days. 

Now,  what  are  the  present-day  conditions  in  this 
city,  what  are  the  results  of  these  riots  upon  the  feel 
ings  of  the  people?  The  one  answer  that  I  got  to  this 
question  from  all  classes  of  people  was  that  the  feeling 
was  like  a  smouldering  volcano,  ready  to  explode  at  the 
least  shock.  They  did  not  know  whether  it  was  grow- 


SPRINGFIELD  143 

ing  or  not;  they  rather  thought  it  had  reached  its 
full  height.  Ever  since  the  last  riot  in  1906,  it  has 
seemed  but  an  armed  truce  between  the  two  races, 
and  this  is  more  literally  true  than  most  people  will 
want  to  believe. 

In  the  summer  of  1907,  it  almost  broke  out  again. 
One  negro  shot  another  one  and  started  to  run  through 
one  of  the  business  streets.  Someone  cried  out  that 
he  had  shot  a  white  woman,  and  immediately  the 
whites  gave  chase.  They  caught  him,  and  were  beat 
ing  him  to  death  when  the  police  rescued  him,  telling 
the  mob  that  he  had  only  shot  another  negro.  Thus 
close  did  Springfield  come  to  her  third  race  riot  in 
three  years'  time,  and  each  day  now  she  lives  in  dread 
of  what  may  happen  within  the  space  of  twenty-four 
hours. 

I  said  above  that  there  was  practically  an  armed 
truce  between  the  two  races.  From  absolutely  relia 
ble  sources,  from  the  editor  of  one  of  Springfield's 
largest  daily  papers,  from  negroes  themselves,  I  have 
information  that  a  secret  organization  was  formed 
among  the  colored  people  soon  after  the  riot  of  1906, 
and  the  objects  of  the  members  of  this  organization 
were  to  procure  firearms,  to  drill  themselves  in  the  use 
of  them  and  to  prepare  themselves  in  every  possible 
way  for  self  defense  in  the  next  riot.  Bombs  were 
secured,  and  many  colored  homes  were  converted  into 
small  arsenals.  Colored  men  and  colored  women  have 
gone  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city  and  practiced  shoot 
ing.  These  facts  have  not  been  published  in  the  city 
papers.  The  editor  told  me  that  these  items  have  been 
suppressed  by  all  the  papers  in  the  city,  as  they  would 
only  incite  both  factions  on  to  conflict. 

Let  me  give  the  words  of  a  hot-blooded  white  ex 
press  agent  and  a  hot-blooded  negro  that  I  found  fish 
ing  by  the  river-side,  both  of  whom  talked  as  if  they 
were  waiting  and  almost  anxious  for  the  fray.  The 
white  man  said,  "The  race  feeling  now?  Just  like  a 


144  THB  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

volcano  ready  to  break  out  and,  when  it  does,  look  out 
for  something  awful.  There  will  be  a  big  row  of  dead 
niggers  and  probably  whites  too.  Everyone  in  town, 
white  and  black,  has  at  least  one  gun." 

The  following  were  the  words  of  the  colored  man : 
"The  feeling  is  much  worse  here  since  the  riots.  The 
colored  people's  houses  are  small  arsenals,  and  every 
man  has  at  least  one  good  gun.  They  have  been  prac 
ticing  shooting  too,  and  even  the  colored  women  can 
shoot  well.  If  another  riot  starts,  there  will  be  such 
trouble  as  will  make  this  old  town  shake." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

COLUMBUS. 

Columbus,  the  capital  of  Ohio,  has  a  feeling  to 
ward  the  negroes  all  its  own.  In  all  my  travels  in  the 
State,  I  found  nothing  just  like  it.  It  is  not  so  much  a 
rabid  feeling  of  prejudice  against  the  negroes  simply 
because  their  skin  is  black  as  it  is  a  bitter  hatred  for 
them  because  they  are  what  they  are  in  character  and 
habits-  The  negroes  are  almost  completely  outside  the 
pale  of  the  white  people's  sympathy  in  this  city,  but 
the  latter  justify  themselves,  and  in  fact  many  of  the 
better  class  of  negroes  agree  with  them,  on  the  ground 
that  so  many  of  the  negroes  are  proving  themselves  by 
their  attitude  and  conduct  unworthy  of  the  respect  of 
decent  people.  This  condition  of  affairs  has  been  grow 
ing  by  leaps  and  bounds  during  the  last  five  or  ten 
years.  Most  of  the  colored  people  say  that  it  is  since 
the  coming  of  a  large  number  of  disreputable  Southern 
negroes  that  affairs  have  grown  worse.  The  white 
people  seem  to  think  that  the  late  comers  are  prone 
to  assert  "their  rights"  a  little  too  freely-  Whatever 
the  cause  may  be,  this  much  is  evident, — the  feeling 
against  the  negroes  is  bitter  in  the  extreme. 

Let  me  quote  from  the  assistant  adjutant-general 
of  Ohio :  "The  anti-negro  feeling  here  in  Columbus  is 
at  white  heat.  We  are  expecting  an  outbreak  any  day 
and  are  getting  everything  in  readiness  for  it,  so  far 
as  the  military  is  concerned.  Probably  you  noticed 
that  a  new  Gatling  gun  has  been  placed  in  the  rotunda 
of  the  capitol  building." 

How  does  this  anti-negro  feeling  assert  itself? 
In  much  the  same  manner  as  has  been  described  al 
ready  in  speaking  of  Cincinnati,  Dayton,  and  Spring 
field.  However,  there  are  a  few  especially  interesting 
conditions  that  I  must  present.  I  have  already  shown 
that  hotels  almost  without  exception  refuse  to  enter- 


146  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

tain  colored  people,  and  the  Columbus  hotels  are  no 
exception.  The  leading  hotel  of  the  city,  The  Chitten- 
den,  comes  as  near  to  being  an  exception,  as  the  follow 
ing  words  from  its  manager  will  indicate:  "No;  we 
do  not  entertain  negroes.  Our  white  guests  would  not 
permit  it  for  a  moment.  There  have  been  a  few  in 
stances  in  which  white  guests,  especially  from  the 
South,  have  brought  their  colored  nurses  with  them. 
These  colored  women  we  have  put  in  a  back  room  and 
we  have  served  their  meals  to  them  there.  We  charg 
ed  the  white  guests  heavily  for  them,  as  after  their  de 
parture  we  always  thoroughly  renovated  the  rooms, 
taking  up  carpets,  washing  all  the  bed-clothes,  airing 
and  often  destroying  the  mattresses." 

The  assistant  manager  of  the  Great  Southern  Ho 
tel  told  me  that  they  did  practically  the  same  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Chittenden.  The  "Busy  Bee"  restaurants, 
of  which  there  are  several  in  the  city,  owned  by  one 
man,  will  serve  negroes  under  protest  at  a  back  table 
and  at  raised  prices.  No  more  easy  is  it  for  the  ne 
groes  to  get  a  drink  than  it  is  to  get  food.  None  of  the 
first-class  soda-fountains  will  serve  them,  and  in  sa 
loons,  if  they  insist  on  service,  it  is  given  them  at 
double  price,  after  which  the  glass  contaminated  by 
their  touch  is  sometimes  broken  in  pieces  at  their  feet. 
Recently  a  bartender,  caught  by  his  proprietor  serving 
a  drink  to  his  colored  barber,  was  told  that  a  repeti 
tion  of  the  offense  would  cost  him  his  position. 

To  show  that  all  classes  of  whites  are  banded  to 
gether  against  the  negroes,  it  will  suffice  to  say  that 
the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association  does  not 
admit  colored  women  to  any  of  its  advantages,  nor 
does  the  Young  Ladies'  Educational  and  Industrial 
Institute,  a  philanthropic  organization  located  on 
Fourth  street. 

From  this  account,  it  is  hard  to  imagine  the  ne 
groes  in  a  worse  condition  socially,  but  they  are 
no  better  off  industrially.  The  whites  employ  the  ne- 


COLUMBUS  147 

groes  only  when  they  have  to  do  it,  when  they  them 
selves  will  suffer  if  they  do  not  do  it.  To  show  that 
I  am  generalizing  only  from  specific  facts,  I  shall  state 
a  few  conditions  that  exist  in  Columbus  today. 

The  street  railway  company,  employing  hundreds 
of  men  and  taking  in  thousands  of  dollars  every  year 
from  negroes  in  the  way  of  fares,  employs  not  one  ne 
gro,  even  as  janitor  or  ditch  digger.  Not  a  factory  of 
any  consequence  in  the  city  employs  a  negro  in  any 
skilled  work.  This  work  of  course  goes  to  the  unions, 
and  we  have  already  seen  how  the  unions  in  Ohio  have 
no  use  for  the  colored  men.  In  Columbus  negroes  may 
be  found  in  a  union  now  and  then,  but  they  themselves 
say  that  in  such  cases  the  whites  took  them  in  only 
that  they  might  the  more  effectually  defeat  their  ef 
forts.  Some  few  of  the  negroes  have  refused  invita 
tions  to  join.  Such  was  the  case  of  a  colored  musical 
organization  a  few  years  ago.  This  organization  was 
giving  exceptional  music,  and  was  receiving  many  calls 
for  service.  The  white  musicians'  union  asked  the 
colored  musicians  to  join  them,  after  first  trying  in 
every  other  way  to  kill  their  organization.  The  invi 
tation  was  not  accepted. 

Five  years  ago  a  colored  man  came  to  Columbus 
from  Virginia.  He  was  a  member  of  the  National 
Bricklayers'  Union,  and  had  his  card  stating  that  he 
was  in  good  standing.  The  local  union  paid  his  wages 
for  five  weeks  and  let  him  walk  about  the  streets  in 
idleness,  rather  than  have  him  work  by  their  side. 
Recently  a  white  man  employed  upon  a  new  building 
both  white  and  colored  bricklayers  of  the  same  union. 
First  one  white  man  and  then  another  pretended  sick 
ness  and  quit  work,  leaving  finally  but  the  few  colored 
men  working-  The  builder  then  had  to  discharge  the 
negroes  before  he  could  hire  enough  white  men  to  com 
plete  the  work. 

What  then  is  left  to  the  colored  man  in  the  way 
of  employment?  He  can  labor  at  unskilled  work  in 


148  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

the  steel  plants  and  foundries.  He  can  work  in  fer 
tilizer  factories  with  their  loathsome  odor.  He  can 
clean  sewers  and  work  on  the  streets.  The  "profes 
sion"  of  janitor  is  still  his,  but  the  one  other  "profes 
sion"  of  the  colored  race,  that  of  waiter,  is  gradually 
slipping  from  his  grasp.  The  "Busy  Bee"  restaurants 
have  displaced  the  negroes  with  white  girls,  much  to 
the  satisfaction  of  the  customers,  so  the  manager  in 
formed  me.  The  Neil  House  manager  told  me  that  he 
would  be  only  too  glad  to  displace  his  fifty  colored 
waiters  with  white  ones  if  he  could  get  them.  Other 
managers  expressed  themselves  against  the  negro 
waiter. 

The  popularity  of  the  colored  barber  is  also  on  the 
wane,  according  to  the  report  of  several  negroes,  for  a 
long  time  engaged  in  this  work.  One  of  them  told  me 
of  the  following  incident  that  occurred  in  his  shop  just 
a  few  days  before  his  talk  with  me.  A  white  man  came 
and  pulled  his  coat  off,  ready  to  have  some  work  done, 
when,  looking  around,  he  noticed  that  all  the  barbers 
were  colored.  A  look  of  surprise  and  disappointment 
came  over  his  face.  He  put  his  coat  on  again  and 
walked  out  without  saying  a  word. 

The  industrial  position  of  the  negroes  in  this  city 
could  hardly  be  worse.  They  get  but  little  work  to  do, 
and  then  often  they  have  to  accept  lower  wages  than 
white  men  would  receive  for  the  same  work.  More 
over,  they  are  without  incentive  to  strong  effort,  since 
they  know  that  they  cannot  rise  by  meritorious  work. 
As  one  of  them  said  to  me,  "Here's  the  situation.  You 
and  I  could  go  to  some  big  establishment  and  get  jobs 
scrubbing  floors.  You  would  be  able  to  advance  to 
ward  the  presidency  of  the  institution  as  fast  as  you 
showed  yourself  deserving  in  the  eyes  of  your  employ 
er.  I  could  go  on  working  at  my  job,  and  twenty-five 
years  later,  you  would  find  me  still  a  janitor.  Both 
of  us  realizing  this  situation  when  we  began  our 


COLUMBUS 


149 


work,  which  one  would  naturally  show  the  more  am 
bition  and  render  the  better  service?'' 

What  becomes  of  the  little  money  that  the  negroes 
do  manage  to  get  into  their  hands?  I  have  already 
stated  that  they  have  to  pay  as  much  as,  or  more  than, 
the  white  men  for  their  groceries.  Scarcely  any  of 
them  own  their  own  homes-  They  cannot  buy  or  rent 
in  any  good  portion  of  the  city.  They  are  crowded  off 
by  themselves  in  miserable  tenements  owned  by  white 
men  and  built  with  total  disregard  for  sanitary  condi 
tions,  but  let  at  high  rentals. 

So  far  I  have  given  the  side  of  the  case  that  en 
gages  sympathy  for  the  negro.  Now  let  us  view  the 
case  from  the  white  man's  point  of  view,  showing  the 
causes  of  his  attitude  toward,  and  treatment  of,  the 
negroes. 

I  have  just  before  stated  that  it  is  not  a  blind  prej 
udice  that  seems  to  actuate  the  white  people  of  Colum 
bus  in  their  treatment  of  the  negroes,  but  a  bitter  hat 
red  of  the  negroes  because  of  their  character  and  hab 
its.  They  say  that  the  negroes  are  not  only  shiftless 
and  careless  about  their  persons,  but  that  they  cannot 
be  trusted ;  and,  furthermore,  that  they  are  constantly 
doing  things  to  antagonize  and  affront  the  white  peo 
ple.  These  accusations,  if  true,  are  serious.  Let  us 
examine  them  at  some  length.  The  manager  of  the 
large  Chittenden  Hotel,  employing  almost  a  hundred 
negroes,  says  that  they  are  altogether  shiftless.  The 
colored  waiters  of  their  own  accord  will  not  keep  their 
napkins  clean  nor  even  their  own  persons.  They  re 
quire  constant  watching.  The  manager  of  the  Neil 
House,  another  large  hotel  employing  fifty  negroes, 
had  exactly  the  same  complaint  against  them-  The 
"Busy  Bee"  restaurants,  employing  almost  two  hun 
dred  people,  have  lately  dispensed  with  all  colored 
help  chiefly  on  this  ground. 

The  Columbus  Street  Kailway  Company  employ 
ed  hundreds  of  them  up  to  a  few  years  ago.  They 


I5o  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

were  unreliable,  would  work  one  day,  get  intoxicated 
the  next,  and  then  come  back  to  work  for  a  day  or  so 
again.  The  company  in  disgust  finally  said  that  they 
would  not  employ  another  negro,  and  they  have  stood 
by  their  decision  to  this  day.  A  man  with  some  color 
ed  blood  in  his  veins  runs  a  large  grocery  store  on  High 
street  and  employs  more  than  a  dozen  clerks.  Until 
a  few  years  ago  he  employed  colored  clerks.  He  dis 
charged  them,  he  told  me,  because  he  could  not  de 
pend  on  them,  and  since  that  time  has  employed  white 
clerks. 

A  colored  photographer,  a  man  far  above  the  av 
erage  of  his  race,  said  that  there  was  no  question  but 
that  the  ordinary  negroes  in  Columbus  merit  the  ill 
opinion  of  all  decent  people  for  the  manner  in  which 
they  live.  They  are  generally  to  be  found  living  in 
miserable  hovels,  or  in  big  arat-and-fire-trap  tene 
ments,'7  where  every  Sunday,  especially,  they  get  intox. 
icated,  hold  dog,  cat,  and  chicken  fights,  play  the  ban 
jo,  dance  cake-walks,  and  in  other  ways  make  the  day 
hideous  for  their  neighbors.  They  live  like  hogs,  and 
are  often  called  "the  one-day  livers."  Their  ambition 
is  to  make  enough  money  to  get  intoxicated  Saturday 
night  and  to  feast  and  carouse  all  day  Sunday.  My 
informant  said  that,  while  this  is  true  for  the  average 
negroes  of  the  city,  it  applies  especially  to  the  new  ne 
groes  that  have  lately  come  up  from  the  South.  A 
dozen  colored  women  of  the  better  class  went  to  these 
negroes  a  short  time  ago  and  tried  to  do  a  little  mis 
sionary  work  among  them.  They  were  received  with 
insults  on  all  sides,  and  were  called  "the  white  folks' 
niggers."  A  pastor  of  the  leading  colored  church  of 
the  city  and  one  of  the  best  known  colored  preachers 
of  Ohio,  confirmed  the  above  statements,  and  told  me 
in  addition  that  matters  were  even  worse;  that  these 
negroes  were  going  about  the  streets  dirty  and  half- 
clothed,  with  but  an  undergarment  for  a  shirt,  and 
that  often  open  in  front.  They  were  used  to  doing  this 


COLUMBUS  151 

in  the  South,  and  they  never  thought  of  being  tidy,  and 
did  not  realize  that  they  were  making  themselves  and 
their  race  offensive  to  the  white  people.  He  said  that 
he,  and  other  ministers,  had  of  late  appealed  to  them 
to  better  these  conditions. 

Closely  associated  with  the  idea  that  they  are 
shiftless  is  the  idea  that  they  are  too  prone  to  steal. 
Even  the  negroes  themselves  at  times  acknowledged 
this  weakness.  A  colored  janitor  declared  as  the  main 
reason  why  his  people  did  not  more  often  patronize 
their  own  colored  lawyers,  that  they  could  not  trust 
them.  The  managers  of  the  large  hotels,  where  they 
are  employed,  say  that  almost  without  exception  the 
negroes  will  steal,  whenever  they  get  the  chance,  and 
that  they  are  very  cunning  in  the  way  they  do  it.  Some 
of  the  hotels  have  a  regular  system  of  espionage,  and 
every  negro  as  he  leaves  between  watches  is  examined 
to  see  that  he  has  no  packages  about  him.  The  man 
ager  of  the  Neil  House  told  me  of  the  following  inci 
dent  that  recently  occurred.  He  had  a  negro  employ 
ed  to  polish  the  brass  fixtures  in  the  bar-room.  He  was 
an  adept  at  it,  and  the  manager  praised  him.  Soon  he 
got  to  coming  early  in  the  morning  before  the  bar 
tender  was  up,  giving  as  his  excuse  that  he  could 
work  so  much  better  before  people  got  around.  Soon 
news  came  to  the  manager  that  this  colored  man  was 
giving  fancy  wine  suppers.  He  started  an  investiga 
tion,  which  revealed  that  for  some  time  the  negro  had 
been  carrying  away  the  best  of  his  wines  in  a  specially 
constructed  bottle  made  very  flat  in  order  to  lie  close 
to  his  person,  and  thus  be  unnoticed  by  the  watcher  at 
the  door.  This  incident,  the  manager  told  me,  was 
but  one  of  many. 

In  the  winter  of  1908-?09,  there  were  seventeen 
purses  snatched  from  white  ladies,  and  every  one  of 
them  by  colored  men.  There  were  also  many  daylight 
robberies  committed  by  negroes.  A  man  of  importance 
in  the  public  schools  of  the  city  told  me  that  it  was 


152 


THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 


the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  for  them  to  steal, 
and  that  they  did  not  seem  to  realize  that  they  were 
doing  wrong.  His  explanation  for  this  condition  is 
interesting.  He  said  it  was  bred  in  their  bones.  In 
slavery  days,  if  they  were  well  treated,  they  could  go 
to  the  chicken-roost  and  get  chickens  for  their  cabin 
dinners  without  a  word  being  said  against  it;  while, 
if  they  had  a  bad  master,  they  felt  compelled  to  steal 
in  order  to  live.  In  neither  case  then  did  they  consider 
it  a  crime  to  steal,  and  today  as  a  result,  they  consider 
it  no  crime  to  steal,  either  from  their  friend  or  from 
their  enemy- 
One  other  great  complaint  made  by  the  white 
people  against  the  negroes,  aside  from  their  shiftless- 
ness  and  stealing,  was  that  they  had  a  strong  desire  to 
antagonize  the  whites  in  all  possible  ways,  especially 
in  public  places.  Their  actions  on  street  cars  were 
condemned  by  all  whites,  and  by  the  better  class  of 
blacks.  When  a  negro  boards  the  street-car  he  pro 
ceeds  to  get  a  seat  whether  there  is  one  vacant  or  not. 
The  following  incident  told  by  the  colored  photogra 
pher  already  referred  to  will  illustrate  this  matter 
quite  fully.  He  was  on  a  street-car  one  evening  when 
a  negro,  fresh  from  his  work  in  the  steel  mill,  with  his 
filthy  working  clothes  on,  boarded  the  car  and,  al 
though  there  was  no  room,  crowded  into  a  seat  by  the 
side  of  a  white  woman,  elegantly  dressed.  When  the 
colored  photographer  remonstrated  with  him  for  his 
action,  he  turned  and  said,  "I'm  no  d — d  white  man's 
nigger  like  you.  I  have  a  right  here,  and  I  am  going 
to  take  it."  The  conductor  came  along  and  put  him  off 
the  car,  the  colored  photographer  giving  the  conduct 
or  his  name  as  a  witness  if  needed. 

The  janitor  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  build 
ing,  himself  a  negro,  recently  got  off  a  street-car  in 
very  shame  of  his  race,  because  a  crowd  of  North  Car 
olina  negroes  were  acting  in  such  a  disgraceful  man- 


COLUMBUS 


153 


ner.  He  said  that  he  had  to  wait  almost  a  half-hour 
for  another  car,  but  he  was  willing  to  do  it,  rather 
than  be  classed  with  such  people. 

While  the  white  people  of  Columbus  are  inclined 
to  blame  the  whole  race  for  such  actions,  I  know  from 
my  conversation  with  the  better-class  negroes  that  they 
are  far  from  sympathizing  with  such  conduct.  Many 
of  them  desire  pleasant  relations  with  the  white  peo 
ple,  and  are  against  doing  anything  to  antagonize 
them. 

The  following  will  illustrate  the  views  of  the  bet 
ter  class  of  negroes  in  this  matter  of  antagonizing  the 
white  people.  The  colored  groceryman,  of  whom  I 
have  previously  spoken,  has  always  employed  a  white 
girl  as  book-keeper-  He  lives  in  the  same  section  of  the 
city  that  she  lives  in,  and  they  have  to  ride  to  and  from 
home  on  the  same  street-car  line.  In  all  the  years  that 
he  has  employed  her,  he  has  never  appeared  on  the 
street  by  her  side,  nor  has  he  recognized  her  on  the 
street-car.  Living  on  the  same  street,  they  would  nor 
mally  get  off  at  the  same  corner,  but,  whenever  he  hap 
pens  to  find  her  on  the  same  street-car  with  himself,  he 
manages  to  have  business  at  the  street  just  before  or 
beyond  where  she  gets  off.  His  reason  for  acting  in 
this  way  is  that  it  would  cause  talk  and  injure  both 
of  them  if  they  were  seen  together.  He  believes  that 
the  colored  man  ought  to  be  careful  to  do  nothing 
that  antagonizes  the  white  race,  and,  in  his  opinion, 
nothing  is  more  repulsive  to  the  white  man,  than  the 
idea  of  amalgamation  of  the  races.  Many  others  of  the 
better  class  of  negroes  expressed  themselves  to  the 
effect. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CLEVELAND. 

I  have  thought  of  heading  this  chapter  "The  ne 
gro's  Paradise,"1  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  pictures  a 
condition  in  such  contrast  to  the  situation  in  Ohio  at 
large.  In  Cleveland,  the  largest  city  of  Ohio,  accord 
ing  to  the  census  of  1900,  the  negro  has  almost  com 
plete  economic  equality  with  the  white  man.  By  this 
I  mean  that  he  is  permitted  to  earn  his  living  by  work 
ing  in  that  calling  for  which  he  is  equipped,  and  for 
which  he  has  a  liking,  just  as  is  the  white  man.  As 
a  result  we  find  him  doing  well  in  many  occupations. 

A  colored  man  by  the  name  of  George  D.  Jones 
has  recently  invented  a  trolley-wheel  that  is  said  to  be 
one  of  the  best  on  the  market.  He  has  patented  it, 
interested  a  few  of  his  colored  friends  in  it  and  is  now 
engaged  in  its  manufacture  on  a  considerable  scale. 
Several  white  capitalists  have  tried  to  purchase  an  in 
terest  in  the  business  and  conduct  it  on  a  larger  scale, 
but  they  have  not  been  successful.  The  negro  has 
faith  in  himself  to  carry  on  what  he  has  so  well  begun. 

A  colored  man  is  the  manager  of  a  large  manufac 
tory  employing  about  one  hundred  white  men  and  one 
hundred  blacks.  The  Leonard  Sofa  Bed  Company  is 
a  good-sized  factory,  owned  exclusively  by  colored  peo 
ple,  and  colored  people  only  are  employed  by  it. 

The  superintendent  of  construction  of  the  im 
mense  Hippodrome  building  in  which  the  National 
Educational  Association  held  its  meetings  in  1908  was 
a  colored  man,  and  one  of  unusual  ability. 

Cleveland  has  honored  several  colored  men  with 
high  political  offices.  A  few  years  ago  she  sent  a  col 
ored  man  by  the  name  of  Green  to  the  State  Senate  as 
her  representative.  Mr.  Green  now  occupies  a  govern- 

1  This  description  was  published  in  The  Independent,  New  York, 
March  7,  1912. 


CLEVELAND  155 

nient  position  in  the  postal  service,  and  he  is  a  lawyer 
by  profession.  Two  other  colored  men  have  been  sent 
as  Cleveland's  representatives  to  the  lower  house  of 
the  State  Legislature,  and  these  were  sent  at  the  same 
time.  One  negro  has  been  a  city  justice  of  the  peace 
for  many  years. 

Besides  those  engaged  in  manufacturing  pursuits 
and  political  work,  we  find  a  good  number  in  the  pro 
fessions,  and  many  of  these  doing  well.  There  are  sev 
eral  lawyers,  one  of  whom  is  an  author  of  considera 
ble  note,  having  written  several  novels  and  some  more 
serious  works.  He  has  a  large  practice,  which  is  not 
confined  by  any  means  to  his  own  race.  He  is  honored 
and  esteemed  by  many  of  the  leading  white  men  of  the 
city. 

There  are  some  colored  physicians.  Their  prac 
tice  is  confined  almost  exclusively  to  the  colored  pop 
ulation.  There  are  some  dentists  whose  practice  is 
likewise  limited.  There  are  also  several  colored  teach 
ers,  whose  teaching  is  not  restricted  to  the  colored 
schools,  for  there  has  not  been  an  exclusively  colored 
school  in  Cleveland  since  it  was  founded.  These  col 
ored  teachers  are  engaged  in  instructing  white  and 
colored  children  alike  in  the  regular  public  schools. 
One  colored  girl,  a  graduate  of  Smith  College,  teaches 
Latin  and  Algebra  in  the  Central  High  School  and  is 
successful  in  her  work.  Eleven  other  colored  girls, 
graduates  mostly  of  Western  Reserve  University,  lo 
cated  at  Cleveland,  teach  in  the  grades.  The  Superin 
tendent  of  Schools  and  others  informed  me  that  their 
work  was  wholly  satisfactory,  and  that  there  had  been 
scarcely  a  complaint  from  a  white  parent  that  his 
child  was  being  taught  by  a  colored  person.  The  head 
of  the  large  Hatch  library  for  about  fifteen  years  was 
a  colored  man. 

The  colored  men  are  admitted  to  trades  unions 
on  the  same  basis  as  the  white  men,  receive  the  same 


156  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

wages  and  work  on  the  same  jobs  with  the  white  men 
without  any  friction. 

As  many  white  men  and  many  colored  men  told 
the  writer,  the  negro  is  given  a  clear  field  in  which  to 
work  out  his  own  welfare  and,  if  he  "makes  good,"  he 
is  respected  for  it  by  the  white  people.  The  colored 
men  feel  that  they  are  fairly  treated  and  have  no  com 
plaint  to  make.  Feeling  also  that  it  is  aup  to  them  to 
make  good,"  they  are  steadied  in  life  and  get  down  to 
business  more  than  they  otherwise  would.  To  illus 
trate  how  this  feeling  permeates  the  average  man  of 
the  race  in  this  city  of  Cleveland,  consider  the  follow 
ing  fact:  The  proprietor  of  the  barber  shop  in  the 
leading  hotel,  the  Hollenden,  a  colored  man  himself, 
and  the  leading  colored  henchman  of  the  late  Senator 
Marcus  Hanna  in  the  city  of  Cleveland  stated  to  me 
that  he  employed  fifteen  colored  men  in  his  shop,  each 
one  of  whom  owned  his  own  home  and,  besides,  had  a 
comfortable  bank  account. 

The  negro  in  this  city  of  Cleveland  is  given  the 
opportunity  of  making  his  living  as  he  sees  fit ;  he  im 
proves  the  opportunity  and  is  happy.  He  does  not  com 
plain  because  the  white  man  does  not  treat  him  as  his 
boon  companion.  There  is  no  social  equality  between 
the  two  races,  and  at  the  same  time  there  is  no  bittter- 
ness  over  it.  Both  races  seem  too  wise  to  let  that 
enter  into  the  relations  between  them.  They  are  two 
distinct  races.  Each  race  seems  to  say  to  the  other: 
Here  we  are,  thrown  together  upon  this  one  spot  of 
Mother  Earth.  Let  us  make  the  best  of  it.  We  all 
must  fight  the  battle  of  life ;  we  must  work  in  order  to 
live.  You  have  as  much  right  to  live  as  we.  You  may 
work  at  what  your  hands  find  to  do,  and  we  will  do 
the  same.  You  enjoy  the  fruits  of  your  labors  as  you 
see  fit,  we  will  do  the  same. 

And  working  out  this  declaration  of  interdepend 
ence  and  independence,  the  people  of  Cleveland  have 
come  near  to  furnishing  to  the  world  at  large  an  ideal 


CLEVELAND  157 

condition  of  affairs  between  the  white  and  colored 
races-  In  making  their  living  from  the  same  piece  of 
ground,  they  have  found  it  profitable  to  combine. 
The  two  races  in  enjoying  the  fruits  of  their  labors 
have  seen  fit  to  enjoy  them  separately.  They  do  not 
seem  to  realize  that  there  is  any  "negro  problem/'  or 
anything  of  the  kind.  Everything  is  taken  as  a  matter 
of  course.  On  making  specific  enquiries  as  to  what 
extent  the  two  races  mix  socially,  I  found  out  the  fol 
lowing  things: 

The  negroes  live  to  themselves  on  Central  Avenue, 
Cedar  Avenue  and  Done  Street.  According  to  the 
census  of  1900,  there  were  6,000  of  them.  The  two 
races  prefer  to  live  by  themselves  in  their  home  life. 
As  the  negro  population  increases,  and  new  land  is 
needed  to  accommodate  it,  adjacent  property  is  al 
ways  ready  for  sale  at  a  reasonable  price. 

Men  of  the  two  races  may  meet  as  friends  on  the 
streets  or  in  a  business  way,  but  this  relation  is  never 
extended  to  the  home  life.  The  white  man  will  not 
think  of  such  a  thing  as  introducing  a  colored  person 
to  his  wife  nor  will  he  have  them  meet  on  the  same 
social  plane.  This  is  illustrated  by  the  following 
case:  There  is  a  club  of  the  leading  literary  men  in 
the  city,  who  have  met  for  years.  In  this  club  there 
is  an  author  of  large  gifts,  but  who  happens  to  have 
almost  an  imperceptible  amount  of  colored  blood  in 
his  veins-  Some  time  ago  it  was  proposed  that  the  club 
have  a  banquet,  to  which  they  would  invite  their  wiv 
es.  The  idea  was  entered  into  with  enthusiasm,  until 
one  of  the  members  happened  to  think  that  it  would 
be  necessary  to  have  the  wife  of  the  colored  member 
present.  The  whole  thing  was  then  quietly  dropped, 
the  members  of  the  club  taking  the  following  view  of 
the  matter,  as  expressed  by  one  of  them :  "Although  I 
am  a  Southerner,  I  am  broad-minded  enough  to  admire 
Mr.  A.  for  his  work.  I  like  to  talk  with  him  and  shake 
his  hand,  but  for  my  wife  to  meet  his  wife  in  social 


158  THE  COLOR  UNE  IN  OHIO 

equality  is  a  very  different  thing-    She  would  not  agree 
to  it,  and  I  could  not  blame  her." 

A  few  years  ago  some  of  the  young  negroes  tried 
to  attend  the  public  dance  along  with  the  whites,  but 
it  was  made  so  uncomfortable  for  them  that  they  do 
not  attempt  it  any  more. 

Ordinarily,  the  colored  people  of  Cleveland  are 
very  thoughtful  about  intruding  themselves  upon  the 
white  people  in  any  way  that  would  be  disagreeable 
for  either  race.  This  is  shown  in  their  attitude  to 
ward  frequenting  white  people's  eating  places  or  res 
taurants.  When  I  asked  many  of  the  white  people 
about  this,  the  usual  reply  was,  "Well,  since  I  come 
to  think  about  it,  I  never  see  a  colored  man  in  any  res 
taurant  where  I  eat.  I  suppose  they  would  feed  him 
if  he  should  come  in,  but  as  he  knows  that  there  is  gen 
erally  some  feeling  about  that  matter,  I  suppose  he  has 
the  good  sense  to  stay  away  or  patronize  his  own  res 
taurant."  And  that  he  does,  for  his  own  self-respect, 
and  because  he  thinks  it  wise. 

Each  race  shows  regard  for  the  rights  and  desires 
of  the  other,  and  the  result  is  a  most  happy  one  for  all 
concerned ;  and  Cleveland  stands  out  today  in  a  class 
by  itself  so  far  as  the  cities  of  Ohio  are  concerned,  and 
probably  there  are  few  like  it  in  this  regard  throughout 
the  country. 

The  question  now  naturally  comes  up,  why  is 
Cleveland's  attitude  towards  the  negro  what  it  is? 
The  following  facts  will  help  to  answer  this  question : 
According  to  the  census  of  1900,  her  population  of 
381,768  was  made  up  of  124,631  foreign-born  people, 
163,570  native  whites  of  foreign  parents,  and  87,740 
native  whites  of  native  parents.  The  last  mentioned 
class  was  composed  of  those  born  of  American  par 
ents,  most  of  whom  came  from  Connecticut  and  the 
New  England  States,  where  little  prejudice  was  felt 
gainst  the  negro.  The  other  two  classes  came 
from  countries  not  so  recently  afflicted  with  the  curse 


CLEVELAND  159 

of  African  slavery,  and  hence  felt  less  antipathy  to 
wards  its  victims. 

It  seems  to  me  as  if  this  happy  condition  of  affairs 
in  Cleveland  presents  food  for  thought,  not  only  to  the 
white  man  in  other  cities,  but  to  the  negro  as  well. 
There  are  80,000,000  of  white  people  in  this  land  and 
in  round  numbers  10,000,000  of  colored  people  living 
amongst  them.  At  the  present  time  they  are  living 
in  far  from  pleasant  relations  with  each  other.  It 
would  seem  as  if  this  spirit  of  compromise,  fair  play 
and  good  feeling,  so  evident  in  the  relations  of  the  two 
peoples  of  Cleveland,  would  be  the  desirable  one  for 
all  concerned. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SYRACUSE,  A  NEGRO-HATING  SMALL  TOWN. 

In  Syracuse,  the  writer's  boyhood  home,  a  town 
of  about  2,000  inhabitants,  on  the  Ohio  river  four 
miles  above  Pomeroy,  no  negro  is  permitted  to  reside.1 
No  negro  is  permitted  to  stay  in  the  town  over  night 
under  any  consideration.  This  is  an  absolute  rule  at 
the  present  day,  and  such  has  been  the  custom  for 
several  generations.  The  enforcement  of  this  unwrit 
ten  law  for  keeping  the  negro  from  staying  in  the  town 
over  a  single  night  is  mostly  in  the  hands  of  the  boys 
from  twelve  to  twenty  years  of  age;  but  the  attempt 
of  a  negro  to  become  a  resident  of  the  town  is  resisted 
by  the  townspeople  as  a  whole. 

When  a  colored  man  is  seen  in  the  town  during 
the  day  he  is  generally  told  of  these  traditions  and  is 
warned  to  leave  before  sun-down.  If  he  fails  to  take 
heed,  he  is  surrounded  at  about  the  time  that  darkness 
begins,  and  is  addressed  by  the  leaders  of  the  gang  in 
about  this  language:  "No  nigger  is  allowed  to  stay  in 
this  town  over  night.  We  don't  care  what  you  are 
here  for.  Get  out  of  here  now,  and  get  out  quick." 
He  sees  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  boys  around  him  talk 
ing  in  subdued  voices  and  waiting  to  see  whether  he 
obeys.  If  he  hesitates,  small  stones  begin  to  rain  upon 
him  from  unseen  quarters,  and  this  soon  persuades 
him  to  begin  his  hegira.  He  is  not  allowed  to  walk, 
but  is  told  to  "get  on  his  little  dog  trot."  The  com 
mand  is  always  effective,  for  it  is  backed  by  stones  in 
the  ready  hands  of  boys  none  too  friendly.  So  long  as 
he  keeps  up  a  good  gait,  the  crowd,  which  follows  just 
at  his  heels,  and  which  keeps  growing  until  it  some 
times  numbers  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  boys,  is 
good-natured  and  contents  itself  with  yelling,  laugh- 

1  This  article  appeared  in  The  Independent,  New  York,  July  19, 


A  SMAUv  TOWN  161 

ing  and  hurling  gibes  at  its  victim.  But  let  him  stop 
his  "trot"  for  one  moment,  from  any  cause  whatever, 
and  the  stones  immediately  begin  to  fall.  Thus  they 
follow  him  to  the  farthest  limits  of  the  town,  where 
they  send  him  on  his  way,  while  they  return  to  the 
city  with  triumph  and  tell  their  fathers  all  about  the 
function,  how  fast  the  victim  ran,  how  scared  he  was, 
how  he  pleaded  and  promised  that  he  would  go  and 
never  return  if  they  would  only  go  back  and  leave 
him,  how  Johnnie  Jones  hit  him  with  such  a  big  rock 
that  it  knocked  him  down.  Then  the  fathers  tell  how 
they  used  to  do  the  same  thing,  and  thus  the  heroes 
of  two  wars  spend  the  rest  of  the  evening  by  the  old 
camp-fire,  recounting  their  several  campaigns. 

The  conditions  in  this  town  of  Syracuse  are 
unusual  in  several  ways.  All  the  surrounding  towns 
have  a  considerable  negro  population.  Just  three  mil 
es  below  is  the  small  town  of  Kerr's  Run,  which  has 
more  black  residents  than  white.  Most  of  them  are 
afraid  to  go  up  to  Syracuse  even  during  the  day-time, 
for  the  reputation  of  that  town  is  known  by  almost  ev 
ery  negro  that  works  upon  the  Ohio  river  between  Cin 
cinnati  and  Pittsburg.  Syracuse  is  the  eastern  termi 
nal  of  the  White  Collar  Line  Steamboat  system  from 
Cincinnati.  Many  of  the  negro  hands  on  this  line  are 
afraid  to  go  up  into  the  town  to  load  salt  and  to  get 
freight  unless  the  steamboat  officers  are  with  them. 
When  they  want  anything  from  the  stores  they  usu 
ally  try  to  hire  some  small  boy  to  go  for  them. 

One  colored  family  lives  in  the  country  on  a  small 
farm  just  beyond  the  town  limits.  The  father,  whose 
name  is  Rush  Johnson,  came  there  during  the  Civil 
War,  and  he  tells  many  stories  of  being  brutally 
stoned  and  in  other  ways  warned  to  leave  the 
country.  He  was  a  courageous,  industrious,  and  hon 
est  negro,  and  in  a  few  years  so  won  respect  that  he 
was  permitted  to  stay  without  being  molested.  How- 


162  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

ever,  lie  and  his  children  have  never  dared  to  come 
into  the  town  after  night. 

The  oldest  son  of  this  family,  in  resentment  at  an 
insult  one  day  struck  a  white  school-mate.  He  was 
pounced  upon  immediately  by  a  mob  of  white  boys, 
brutally  beaten,  and  rolled  over  a  steep  embankment, 
sustaining  many  injuries.  He  left  school,  went  West, 
worked  his  way  through  college  and  is  now  a  minister 
of  a  negro  church  in  Illinois. 

A  daughter  of  this  family  attended  the  high 
school  in  the  class  before  that  of  the  writer.  Living 
within  the  limits  of  the  high  school  special  district 
she  could  not  be  debarred  but  she  was  practically  "sent 
to  Coventry."  None  of  her  schoolmates  ever  talked 
with  her  and  they  objected  so  much  to  sitting  near  her 
that  the  principal  had  to  arrange  a  desk  for  her  com 
pletely  removed  from  the  rest  of  the  school.  For 
weeks,  it  seemed,  the  poor  girl  never  spoke  a  word  from 
the  time  she  got  on  the  school  grounds  until  she  left. 
Through  all  these  and  many  more  discouraging  cir 
cumstances  the  brave  girl  struggled  on  through  her 
four  years'  course,  passed  her  examinations,  and  was 
within  two  months  of  graduation  when  she  was  at 
tacked  by  consumption  and  compelled  to  give  up  her 
school  work-  Then,  for  the  first  time,  the  heart  of 
the  town  was  touched  by  the  sufferings  of  a  colored 
person.  All  knew  her  case,  and  had  seen  her  struggle ; 
most  had  opposed  her,  but  at  last  the  sympathy  of 
many  was  aroused.  The  board  of  education  suspend 
ed  its  rule  requiring  the  passing  of  final  examina 
tions  and  voted  Miss  Margaret  Johnson  her  diploma. 
During  these  two  months  of  illness  before  commence 
ment  she  was  not  idle.  For  four  long  years  she  had 
gone  to  her  school  regularly,  had  studied  her  lessons 
and  attended  her  classes,  like  the  rest  of  her  class 
mates  ;  and  during  those  years  she,  too,  had  thought  of 
the  night  when  she  could  stand  before  her  friends  (her 
family,  of  course,  for  none  others  of  her  race  dared 


A  SMALL  TOWN  163 

come  into  the  village)  and  could  receive  the  diploma 
that  would  reward  her  for  so  many  hours  of  toil.  Dur 
ing  the  days  of  sickness,  she  produced  her  essay  and 
asked  that  she  might  be  permitted  to  read  it  along 
with  her  classmates,  for  she  was  always  eager  to  do  as 
they  did,  although  she  knew  that  she  was  among  them 
but  not  of  them.  However  bitter  her  thoughts,  she 
never  expressed  them ;  never  once  had  she  complained 
of  her  treatment  or  shown  resentment. 

On  the  day  when  the  long-looked-for  commence 
ment  exercises  were  held,  in  June  1896,  she  appeared 
in  a  carriage,  and  was  assisted  to  a  front  seat  where 
she  sat  by  the  side  of  her  father  and  two  brothers, 
(her  mother  had  recently  died  of  the  same  disease 
that  had  seized  upon  her).  She  was  too  weak  and  ill 
to  sit  upon  the  platform  with  her  twelve  classmates, 
and  so  with  sad  but  triumphant  eyes  sat  facing  them. 
Were  they  proud  of  her  achievements?  Far  from  it. 
Several  of  them  until  the  last  minute  strenuously  ob 
jected  to  graduation  with  a  colored  person,  as  though 
it  were  a  disgrace. 

Finally,  the  name  Margaret  Johnson  was  reached 
upon  the  program.  Though  aware  that  she  would  not 
be  required  to  read  her  essay,  she  insisted  upon  doing 
her  part.  Rising  from  her  seat  she  took  a  few  steps 
forward  but  was  unable  to  mount  the  platform :  She 
turned  where  she  was,  and  in  a  low  voice,  scarcely 
above  a  whisper,  read  her  essay  on  the  thread-bare  top 
ic  "Perseverance,"  a  theme  that  burned  with  meaning 
for  her,  the  first  and  last  of  her  race  to  stand  before 
a  Syracuse  audience. 

Thus  she  triumphed,  the  diploma  was  hers,  grant 
ed  on  the  same  grounds  as  those  of  her  classmates. 
She  had  done  her  part  in  winning  respect  for  her  race ; 
but  the  sacrifice  had  to  be  paid.  Two  weeks  after  her 
triumph  she  died. 

While  this  girl  showed  to  the  white  people  of  the 
town  that  the  negro  might  amount  to  something,  that 


164  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

he  might  possess  some  qualities  that  they  admired, 
but  did  not  always  show  themselves,  yet  she  could  not 
dispossess  them  of  the  prejudice  that  had  been  nour 
ished  by  them  for  so  many  years.  Still  no  negro  lives 
within  this  town,  no  negro  works  beside  the  white 
man  during  the  day,  and  no  negro  so  much  as  breathes 
the  night  air  within  its  gates.  By  the  women  the  ne- 
roes  are  dreaded  and  feared,  even  in  the  day  time.  The 
little  children  are  taught  to  fear  the  "Black  Man"  with 
all  the  horrors  associated  with  that  name.  The  writer 
has  seen  many  a  child  in  this  town  frightened  almost 
into  hysterics  at  the  mere  sight  of  a  colored  man. 

Since  the  town  was  founded,  about  1815,  not  a  ne 
gro  family  has  lived  in  it.  About  the  year  1855  two 
negroes  were  employed  as  domestics  by  a  family  in 
the  extreme  lower  end  of  the  town,  practically  in  the 
country,  but  they  did  not  stay  long.  Since  the  Civil 
War  two  attempts  have  been  made  by  negro  families 
to  settle  in  the  town,  but  both  were  summarily  driven 
out.  The  following  incident  will  reveal  the  mode  of 
dealing  with  such  cases  and  the  temper  of  the  people. 

About  the  year  1886  a  colored  man  said  that  he 
was  going  to  live  in  Syracuse,  he  had  a  right  there, 
and  he  was  going  to  show  the  people  there  that 
he  was  just  as  good  as  they  were.  Bringing  his 
wife  and  his  few  household  goods  he  put  them 
into  a  small  house  which  was  only  four  or  five  doors 
from  the  writer's  home.  In  the  afternoon  he  was 
called  upon,  informed  of  the  rule  of  the  town, 
and  told  that  he  too  must  leave  before  night.  He 
replied  that  he  would  live  there  as  long  as  he  wished. 
The  word  went  over  the  town  with  wonderful 
rapidity,  and  the  people  immediately  prepared  to  re 
sent  this  affront  to  the  town's  dignity.  As  soon  as 
darkness  had  come  a  large  crowd  of  boys  and  men  as 
sembled  before  the  house,  calling  for  the  occupant  to 
come  out.  Growing  impatient,  the  crowd  went 
through  the  door  with  a  rush.  The  negro  was  quickly 


A  SMAUv  TOWN  165 

overpowered,  separated  from  his  wife,  and  marched 
into  the  street.  There  he  received  the  order  to  march. 
He  went  to  the  edge  of  the  town  where  he  was  left  and 
told  that  he  might  sleep  anywhere  that  he  wished,  so 
long  as  he  was  out  of  the  town  limits;  that  his  wife 
would  be  guarded  in  the  house  over  night ;  and  that,  if 
he  were  caught  sneaking  back  before  daylight,  he 
would  be  hanged  to  the  nearest  tree-  The  next  day  he 
was  allowed  to  return  to  the  house,  where  he  reloaded 
his  goods  and  with  his  wife  departed  to  seek  a  more 
hospitable  town.  This  was  the  last  attempt  of  a  color 
ed  man  to  set  up  his  household  gods  in  the  negro- 
hating  town  of  Syracuse. 


A  BRIEF  GENERAL  SUMMARY. 

Many  people  will  think  that  conditions  in  the  cities  of 
Ohio  are  peculiar,  and  that  they  do  not  fairly  repre 
sent  the  sentiment  of  the  State  at  large  in  regard  to 
the  negro.  That  was  my  own  impression  before  vis 
iting  the  smaller  places,  but  that  impression  did 
not  prove  to  be  correct.  After  studying  conditions 
in  Akron  a  town  of  60,000  inhabitants,  Portsmouth 
with  20,000  people,  Chillicothe  with  15,000,  Urbana 
with  10,000,  Xenia  with  10,000,  Delaware  with 
8,000,  Pomeroy  with  6,000,  Richwood  and  Syra 
cuse  with  2,000  each  and  Point  Isabel  with  200,  I 
feel  justified  in  asserting  that  the  feeling  against  the 
negro,  as  pictured  in  the  chapters  on  Cincinnati,  Day 
ton,  Springfield,  and  Columbus,  is  the  sentiment  pre 
vailing  with  few  exceptions  throughout  the  State  of 
Ohio.  Two  exceptions  I  have  given  in  the  chapters  on 
Cleveland  and  Syracuse. 

Three  of  the  towns  that  I  visited — Akron,  Galion, 
and  Urbana — had  witnessed  the  lynching  of  negroes 
in  recent  years.  In  all  of  these  I  found  the  prejudice 
much  stronger  than  it  was  before  the  lynching,  and 
the  negroes  fewer  in  number.  In  these  towns,  and  al 
so  the  others  just  mentioned,  I  found  the  same  general 
condition  of  affairs  as  I  have  described  fully  in  the 
preceding  chapters. 

In  general  the  negro  has  nothing  resembling 
equality  with  the  white  man  in  social  life  or  in  the 
industrial  life-  He  is  refused  admittance  to  hotels,  to 
theatres,  to  restaurants,  to  soda  fountains ;  he  is  barr 
ed  from  labor  unions  and  is  compelled  to  make  his 
living  by  odd  jobs,  domestic  service,  working  as  jani 
tor,  waiter,  etc.  In  almost  every  city  he  is  an  inhab 
itant  of  the  most  undesirable  outskirt. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

The  scope  of  the  subject  that  has  been  investigat 
ed  in  this  work  is,  in  a  sense,  narrow.  The  subject  has 
been  race  prejudice  only,  and  this  as  found  princi 
pally  in  Ohio.  In  view  of  this  and  the  further  fact 
that  no  such  investigation  has  ever  before  been  made 
on  this  subject,  one  may  readily  see  that  the  bibliog 
raphy  for  it  is  not  extensive. 

The  separate  county  histories,  which  I  thought 
would  be  one  of  the  richest  sources  of  information, 
proved  to  be  almost  valueless.  Though  many  dozens 
of  them  were  looked  through  carefully  (and  scarcely 
any  of  them  were  indexed),  nothing  of  value  was 
found.  The  newspapers  on  the  other  hand  were  espe 
cially  valuable,  as  the  subject  is  one  calling  for  in 
formation  on  public  opinion,  which  newspapers  gener 
ally  reflect.  The  laws  passed  by  the  different  Legis 
latures,  together  with  the  journals  of  the  two  houses 
of  the  Legislature,  were  also  most  valuable  in  reveal 
ing  the  state  of  the  public  mind.  The  reports  of  the 
Supreme  Court  and  lower  courts  of  the  State  consti 
tuted  the  next  best  source.  One  other  source  to  be 
especially  mentioned  is  the  journals  of  the  two  consti 
tutional  conventions  of  1802  and  1851. 

All  of  these  sources  and  almost  all  of  the  others 
used  in  this  work  are  to  be  found  in  the  Ohio  State 
Library  in  the  State  House  at  Columbus. 


NEWSPAPERS  AND  PERIODICALS. 

Cleveland  Leader. 
Cleveland  Plain  Dealer. 
Cincinnati  Enquirer. 
Cincinnati  Commercial  Gazette. 
Cincinnati — The  Emporium. 
Columbus — Ohio  State  Journal. 
Columbus — Ohio  Statesman. 
Columbus  Dispatch. 
Indiana  Statesman. 
Neiv  York  Evening  Post. 
Springfield,  Mass.,  Weekly  Republican. 
The  Blade,  of  Portsmouth,  Ohio. 
The  Supporter,  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio. 
Ohio  Educational  Monthly. 
Magazine  of  Western  History,  VI. 


LAWS  AND  LEGISLATIVE  JOURNALS. 

Laws  of  Ohio  (Annual  Editions). 
House  Journal  (Annual  Editions). 
Senate  Journal  (Annual  Editions). 


COURT  REPORTS. 

Ohio  Reports. 

Ohio  Circuits. 

Ohio  Circuit  Court  Reports. 

Ohio  State  Reports. 

Weekly  Law  Gazette. 

Wright's  Reports. 

(All  of  the  above  are  to  be  found  in  the  State  Law 
Library  in  the  State  House  at  Columbus.) 


CONSTITUTIONS  AND  CONVENTION 
JOURNALS. 

Constitutions  of  1802  and  1851. 
Journal  of  Constitutional  Convention  of  1802 — 
Reprinted  in  index  to  Senate  Journal  of  1827. 
Convention  Debates,  1850-1851  (two  volumes). 


OTHEK  SOURCES. 

Adjutant  General's  Reports. 

Burnett,  Jacob,  Notes  on  Northwest  Territory. 

Barber,  A.  D.,  A  Report  on  the  Condition  of  Colored 

People  in  Ohio,  1840. 
Census  Reports. 

Jay,  William,  Miscellaneous  Writings  on  Slavery. 
Minutes  of  the  Convention  of  Colored  People  of  Ohio 

at  Columbus,  1849. 
Niles'  Weekly  Register. 
Ohio  School  Reports. 
Proceedings  of  Ohio  Anti-Slavery  Convention  held  at 

Putnam,  1835. 
Seward,  William  H.,  Works- 


SECONDARY  WORKS. 

Bryce,  James,  Impressions  of  South  Africa. 

Bryce,  James,  The  Relation  of  the  Advanced  and  Back 
ward  Races. 

Atwater,  Caleb,  History  of  Ohio. 

Chaddock,  R  E.,  Ohio  Before  1853. 

Cutler,  J.  P.,  Life  and  Times  of  Judge  Ephraim  Cutler. 

DuBois,  W.  E.  B.,  The  Souls  of  Black  Folk. 

DuBois,  W.  E.  B-,  The  Philadelphia  Negro. 

Evans,  Nelson  W.,  History  of  Scioto  County. 

Evans,  Nelson  W.  and  Stivers,  E.  B.,  History  of  Ad 
ams  County. 

Fairchild,  J.  H.,  Oberlin,  its  Origin,  Progress  and  Re 
sults. 

Finot,  Race  Prejudice. 

Hickok,  Charles  T.,  The  Negro  in  Ohio,  1802-1870. 

Historical  Sketches  of  Ohio — Higher  Educational  In 
stitutions. — Article  by  Daniel  L.  Payne- 
Howe,  Henry, -Historical  Collections  of  Ohio. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  171 

History  of  Ross  and  Highland  Counties.  Published 
1880.  (Author  not  given). 

Lee,  Alfred  E.,  History  of  the  City  of  Columbus,  Ohio. 

Merriam,  The  Negro  and  the  Nation. 

Miller,  Race  Adjustment. 

Morris,  B.  F.,  Life  of  Thomas  Morris. 

Ovington,  Half  a  Man. 

Ohio,  Archaeological  and  Historical  Publications. 

Page,  The  Negro  The  Southerner's  Problem. 

Schucker,  Life  of  Chase- 

Sinclair,  The  Aftermath  of  Slavery. 

Smith,  Political  History  of  Slavery. 

Smith,  T.  C.,  The  Liberty  and  Free  Soil  Parties. 

Smith,  W.  B.,  The  Color  Line. 

Stephenson,  G.  T.,  Race  Distinctions  in  American 
Law. 

Stone,  Alfred  Holt,  Studies  in  the  American  Race 
Problem. 

Waggoner,  Clark,  History  of  the  City  of  Toledo  and 
Lucas  County. 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  Future  of  the  American  Ne 
gro. 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  Up  From  Slavery- 

Williams,  G.  W.,  History  of  the  Negro  Race  in  Amer 
ica. 

Wilson,  Henry,  History  of  the  Rise  and  Fall  of  the 
Slave  Power  m  America. 


INDEX. 

Akron  riot,  116. 

Akron,  suit  for  damages  by  negro  for  having  to  pay  too 
high  price  for  liquor  at  a  saloon,  119. 

Barber,  A.  D.,  report  on  condition  of  colored  people  of 
Ohio  1840,  48. 

Berry,  Dr.  Wm.  N.  D.,  study  of  lack  of  industrial  oppor 
tunity  for  negroes  in  Springfield,  Mass.,  8. 

Black  Laws,  general  nature,  9,  23;  bill  of  1804,  2l  \  bill  of 
1807,  23;  petition  for  repeal  of,  35,  36;  how  enforced, 
31*  33>  34;  repeal  of,  35-43;  why  repealed,  37,  105;  feel 
ing  in  State  over  the  repeal,  41. 

Boston,  meetings  1855  and  1907  for  discussion  of  the  color 
line,  4. 

Boston  Reformed  League,  unable  to  find  work  for  negroes, 

7- 

Burnett,  Judge,  on  discussion  of  negro  question  in  first 
Constitutional  Convention,  14;  defends  Black  Laws,  29. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  connection  of,  with  Black  Laws,  39. 

Cincinnati,  negroes  driven  out  of,  32 ;  negro  schools  of,  47 ; 
negro  woman  put  off  car  in,  106;  negro  refused  dinner 
in,  sues  for  damages,  118;  present  status  of  negro  in, 
125-133.  (See  negroes.) 

Chillicothe,  first  Constitutional  Convention  in,  in  1802,  13; 
colored  political  convention  in,  107. 

Cleveland,  admitted  negroes  to  white  schools  in  the  early 
days,  33 ;  speech  of  Wm.  H.  Seward  at,  calling  for  re 
peal  of  the  Black  Laws,  37;  Mr.  Andrews  from,  in 
Constitutional  Convention  of  1850-51,  speaks  for  ne 
groes,  71 ;  general  feeling  toward  negroes  of,  today,  154. 
(See  negroes.) 

Color,  effect  of,  upon  prejudice,  87. 

Color  line  in  the  North,  3;  Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison  on,  5. 

Commercial  Gazette  on  color  line,  3. 

Columbus,  negro  schools  of,  46 ;  trouble  over  negro  in  white 
schools  of,  109;  negro  of,  denied  admission  to  theatre, 
109-111;  status  of  negroes  in,  today,  145-153.  (See 
negroes.) 


174  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

Committee  of  Legislature  reports  on  negro  status  1827  and 

1833,  30,  55- 
Constitutional    Convention,    of   1802,    its    attitude    toward 

negroes,  13-21;  of  1850-51,  its  attitude,  60-87;  reception 

of  petitions  in,  concerning  negroes,  60. 
Dayton,  status  of  negroes  in,  today,  134-140.  (See  negroes.) 
Democratic   party's   attitude   toward    repeal   of   the   Black 

Laws,  38,  39,  42. 
Du  Bois,  W.  E.,  "different  from  others,"  5 ;  on  industrial 

opportunity  for  negroes  in  North,  8. 
Education  of  negroes  (see  schools). 
Eliot,  Charles  W.,  on  separation  of  whites  and  blacks  in 

public  schools,  6. 
"Equal  rights,"  law  providing  for,  103;  a  myth,  no,  118, 

120. 

Free-soil  party  asks  for  repeal  of  the  Black  Laws,  38. 
Garrison,  Wm.  Lloyd,  on  color  line,  5. 

Howe,    Henry,    describes    feeling    in    Waverly,    Ohio, 

against  negroes,  112-114. 
Indiana,  excludes  negroes   from   State,   9;   hotel  man   in, 

ruined  as  result  of  feeding  a  negro,  5. 
Illinois,  excludes  negroes  from  the  State,  9. 
Jay,  William,  on  enforcement  of  Black  Laws,  32 ;  on  status 

of  free  negroes,  44;  on  prejudice,  49. 
Lane  Theological  Seminary,  attitude  towards  negroes  in 

early  days,  47;  investigation  of  negro  condition  in  Cin 
cinnati  by,  50. 
Legislature,  passes  Black  Laws,  31,  22;  forbids  admission 

of  negroes  to  all  white  schools,  33;  refuses  to  receive 

petitions    from   hands   of   colored   people,    52;   repeals 

Black  Laws,  35-43;  passes  school  laws  for  negroes,  88; 

repeals  school  laws  for  negroes,  93 ;  attitude  of,  towards 

negro  suffrage,  98-100. 
Legislative  Committees'  reports  on  negroes  in  Ohio,  30,  55, 

57'. 
Lynching  of  negroes,  in  Adams  county,  1856  and  1894,  115; 

at  Galion,  in  Crawford  county,  1882,  115;  at  Washing 
ton  Court  House,  1894,  115;  at  New  Richmond,  Cler- 
mont  county,  1895,  115;  at  Urbana,  1897,  116;  at  Spring 
field,  1906,  117. 
Method  of  investigation  followed  in  this  work,  125. 


INDEX  175 

Mulattoes,  classed  as  negroes  until  Supreme  court  decision 
in  Polly  Gray  vs.  Ohio,  24;  in  other  Supreme  court  de 
cisions,  24,  25,  89. 

Nasby,  assists  in  negro  suffrage  election  1867,  98. 

Negroes,  condition  of,  before  Civil  War,  25,  26;  colonizing 
of,  ideas  about,  as  expressed  in  Constitutional  Conven 
tion  of  1850-51,  86;  debarred  from  militia,  22,  76;  de 
barred  from  jury,  23 ;  debarred  from  schools,  23,  45,  46, 
82-85;  denied  suffrage  by  Constitutional  Convention  of 
1850-51,  8 1 ;  by  popular  vote  1867,  98;  driven  from 
Portsmouth,  Ohio,  32 ;  driven  from  Cincinnati,  32 ;  from 
South  find  Northerners  in  university  more  preju 
diced  than  Southerners,  6 ;  find  industrial  opportunity  in 
North  less  favorable  than  in  the  South,  6;  industrial 
position  of,  in  Cincinnati,  50,  51;  legal  disabilities  of, 
after  repeal  of  the  Black  Laws,  88 ;  live  in  quiet  in  Ohio 
up  to  1830,  35 ;  lynching  of,  in  Adams  county  1856,  at 
Galion  1882,  at  Washington  Court  House  1894,  at  New 
Richmond,  at  Urbana  1894,  at  Springfield  1906,  115-117; 
not  recognized  as  having  any  political  rights,  21 ;  popula 
tion  of,  18,  25,  27,  72,  74,  101,  121 ;  position  of,  in  first 
half  of  last  century,  as  pictured  by  Justice  Read  of  the 
Supreme  court,  58;  by  Justice  Peck  of  same  court,  89, 
90;  position  of,  socially  1802-1849,  44-59J  position  of, 
socially  1849-1912,  105-121 ;  refused  ticket  to  theatre, 
no;  sue  for  damages,  for  refusal  of  meal  at  a  restaurant 
in  Cincinnati,  118;  for  refusal  of  ticket  to  theatre  in 
Cincinnati,  118;  for  being  charged  more  than  a  white 
man  in  a  saloon  at  Akron,  119;  for  being  denied  privi 
lege  of  bowling  in  a  public  park  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  119; 
worse  off  in  North  than  in  South,  i ;  in  Boston,  unable 
to  find  work,  7 ;  in  Massachusetts,  excluded  from  cars,  5  ; 
in  Indiana,  entertainment  of,  at  a  white  hotel  causes  its 
doors  to  close,  5;  in  first  Constitutional  Convention  of 
1802,  denied  privilege  of  voting,  13;  denied  eligibility  to 
any  office  in  State,  14;  denied  right  to  give  oath  against 
a  white  man,  14;  this  repealed  by  one  vote,  14;  in  poli 
tics,  107,  1 08;  in  Cincinnati,  refused  admission  to  col 
leges,  to  hospitals,  to  city  fire  department,  to  municipal 
bath  house,  128;  to  public  parks,  hotels,  restaurants,  127; 
to  saloons,  Pullman  cars,  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  128;  to  Children's 


176  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

Home,  theatres,  to  respectable  districts  of  the  city  for 
homes,  129;  to  labor  unions,  130;  special  causes  for 
prejudice  here,  131 ;  in  Dayton,  refused  privilege  of  buy 
ing  from  stores,  134-136;  relation  to  labor  unions,  137; 
to  National  Cash  Register  Company,  137;  to  general 
employment,  138,  139;  causes  of  prejudice  locally  given, 
139,  140;  in  Springfield,  general  conditions  about  same 
as  in  Dayton,  only  worse,  141 ;  the  riots,  the  causes,  143; 
three  riots  in  three  years,  an  armed  truce,  143 ;  the  pros 
pect,  144;  in  Columbus,  general  state  of  feeling  toward 
the  negroes,  145;  assistant  adjutant-general's  remarka 
ble  statement,  145;  Chittenden  Hotel's  attitude,  146; 
Great  Southern  Hotel,  146;  street  railway's  refusal  to 
employ  negroes,  147 ;  attitude  of  labor  unions,  147 ;  gen 
eral  industrial  position,  148;  character  and  habits  of 
negroes,  149-153;  comments  by  negroes  themselves,  152- 
153;  in  Cleveland,  general  attitude,  154;  successes  of 
various  colored  men,  154-155;  social  position,  156-158; 
in  Syracuse,  a  negro-hating  small  town,  160-165 ;  no 
negro  allowed  to  stay  over  night,  160;  how  prevented, 
161 ;  a  colored  girl's  school  triumph,  162-164;  amend 
ment,  102. 

Oberlin  college,  doors  of,  opened  to  colored  students,  47; 
receives  51  students  from  Lane  Theological  Seminary, 
47-  m 

Ohio,  like  other  Northern  States  with  respect  to  the  negroes, 
4;  first  Northern  States  to  deny  privilege  to  negroes  to 
testify  against  white  people,  22;  attitude  of,  on  the  I5th 
amendment,  102. 

Ohio  State  Journal,  1827,  on  settlement  of  negroes  in  Law 
rence  county,  31 ;  on  repeal  of  Black  Laws,  41 ;  on  edu 
cation  of  negroes,  1827,  48 ;  editorial  ©f,  showing  wretch 
ed  condition  of  negroes,  56. 

Patterson,  F.  D.,  attitude  of,  on  discussion  of  status  of  ne 
groes,  10. 

Peck,  Chief  Justice,  words  of,  on  prejudice,  89. 

Petitions  to  Constitutional  Convention  of  1850-51  in  regard 
to  determining  status  of  negroes,  61-65. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  on  color  line,  5. 

Population  of  negroes,  25;  comparison  of  north  and  south 
portions  of  Ohio  for,  72;  maps  showing,  18,  27,  74,  101, 


INDEX  177 

121. 

Portsmouth,  Ohio,  negroes  driven  from,  32. 

Prejudice,  as  shown  in  Legislative  Committees'  reports,  30, 
55 ;  as  shown  in  Justice  Read's  words,  58 ;  as  shown  in 
Chief  Justice  Peck's  words,  89,  90 ;  effect  of  color  upon, 
87;  increases  as  population,  I,  73;  in  the  North,  2,  3;  in 
Columbus,  109;  growth  in  early  days,  60;  not  so  strong 
in  northern  half  of  Ohio  as  in  southern,  67,  68,  70,  77, 
78,  79;  why  held  in  Ohio,  25,  48,  49,  65,  66;  William  Jay 
on,  in  Ohio,  44,  45 ;  worse  now  than  at  end  of  Civil  War, 
2,  140. 

Randolph,  John,  buys  land  in  Ohio  for  freed  negroes,  29. 

Read,  Justice  N.  C.,  on  mulattoes  and  feeling  against  negroes 
in  general,  24,  58. 

Sawyer,  William,  bitter  against  negroes,  62,  69,  79,  83. 

Schools  for  negroes,  23,  45,  46,  48,  94,  95;  separation  of, 
from  those  of  whites,  upheld  by  Supreme  court,  89,  92 ; 
abolished  1887,  93;  how  repeal  of  law  for  colored 
schools  was  received,  94-98. 

Seward,  Wm.  H.,  speech  at  Cleveland  appealing  for  repeal 
of  Black  Laws,  37. 

Slavery,  almost  established  in  Ohio,  15-16;  actually  existed 
in  a  small  way,  53,  54. 

Springfield,  Mass.,  prejudice  in,  8. 

Springfield,  Ohio,  general  status  of  negroes  in,  141.  (See 
negroes.) 

Stone,  Alfred  Holt,  conclusions,  i ;  on  prejudice  in  the 
North,  6. 

Suffrage  for  negroes,  denied  in  Northern  States  before  the 
war,9;  struggle  for,  in  Ohio,  97-103;  popular  vote  on, 
1867,  in  Ohio  caricatured  by  Nasby,  98,  99. 

Sugar  Grove,  Fairfield  county,  resolutions  of,  against  repeal 
of  the  Black  Laws,  42. 

Supreme  Court,  decides  on  quantity  of  negro  blood  required 
to  debar  from  equal  rights  privileges,  58;  calls  school 
law  one  of  classification  and  not  of  exclusion,  89 ;  gives 
several  decisions  in  regard  to  equal  rights  acts  of  1884 
and  1894,  118-120. 

Syracuse,  a  negro-hating  small  town,  160-165. 

The  Supporter,  newspaper  published  at  Chillicothe  1819,  26 ; 
advertises  an  Ohio  slave  for  sale,  54. 


178  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  OHIO 

The  Ohio  Statesman,  on  repeal  of  Black  Laws,  42. 

Waverly,  a  small  town  with  bitter  feeling  against  the  ne 
groes,  112. 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  on  industrial  education,  7. 

Western  Reserve — very  favorable  attitude  toward  the  ne 
groes,  70;  negro  population  of,  73. 

Wilberforce  College,  a  colored  institution,  burnt  to  the 
ground  by  whites,  107. 

Worthington,  Representative,  from  Chillicothe,  on  feeling 
toward  the  negroes,  31,  60,  70. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

RENEWALS  ONLY— TEL.  NO.  642-3405 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below  or 

Rene,  Jk^  ***  tOi^hich  fenew«I- 

lewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall 


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